M W 9:30-11:00 a.m.
JURY
The diversity of human condition includes a wide spectrum of identities, including people with diverse abilities. Today, there are more and more students with physical and non apparent disabilities attending higher education institutions. This presents challenges—particularly on campuses where buildings are decades old—as well as an opportunity to re-think the relationship between disability and built environment.
The design of buildings reflects the era in which they are built. Until the 1970s little consideration was given to students with disabilities in higher education settings. Since then ,there have been the passing of laws, such as Section 504, 1973 Rehabilitation Act and Americans with Disabilities (ADA) 1990 and Americans with Disabilities Amendment Act (ADAA) 2008 to address the civil rights of persons with disabilities in society and in education. This course will examine the interplay between design, disability, and diversity, focusing on paradigms such as the Medical Models of Disability and the Social Models of Disability. It will focus on how different theories and laws have informed practice and design of buildings particularly with regard to higher education. Additionally, the architecture of these buildings can have crucial implications for the efficacy of students with a range of disabilities in higher education institutions and their sense of belonging where diversity, equity and inclusion is being given more prominence.