ADA Accessibility Adventure

During my experience of being in a wheel chair, I learned a lot. Though it was for merely 15 minutes, the impact it had on me will definitely change the way I feel about my environment. It will also change the way I design and the way I sympathize to those with disabilities. As I wheeled myself to the coffee stand in Carpenter hall, I could feel the overwhelming sense of height from the counters at the stand. It was almost scary. It was nice to see a lowered section of the counter with a part to roll under where you received your coffee. Another problem I saw was holding my coffee. My chair didn’t have a cup holder so I had to hold it between my legs so I could use both hands to move myself and open doors. Most exterior doors had automatic doors to open, but most interior doors did not. When I observed my friend Susie in the wheelchair, she had a lot of difficulty opening doors such as the ones to the bathroom and library. It was very difficult to open the handle and then push open. In the case of the library, there was such difficulty opening the door that a young man in the library saw her trying to open the door, so he came out and held it open. That was very nice to see. I wonder if wheelchair users get a lot of help from strangers. After seeing how difficult it was for myself, I sure hope so. When I entered a bathroom in Daggy with a supposedly accessible stall, this was my hardest struggle. First of all, the bathroom was narrow and I could barely fit. Secondly, there was a trashcan right in the middle of the bathroom. Thirdly, the supposedly accessible stall was not accessible. It was sightly larger then the others, but I just could not fit. I got stuck for about ten minutes and ended up having to back out of the entire bathroom. It was not an enjoyable experience and I can imagine how horrible that would really be. Overall, I think our public environments should be accessible for everyone. Regardless of the cost, it is not fair to make people struggle to perform daily needs. There needs to be more space in bathrooms and libraries. There also needs to be more automatic door operators. I think that everyone who builds and designs buildings should experience what it’s like to maneuver and use their space in a wheelchair. Then they would understand.

ID 201 FA10 Child's Room Design

For the concept of my child’s room I choose the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. From the storyline of the book I choose my keywords grow, transform, and metamorphosis. These words relate to the caterpillars journey and to the growth of a human. From these words I began my early sketches and from those sketches I developed my concept model for the room. The spiral in the model shows the journey through life and the objects along the path represent the obstacles we overcome. I used many skills from the first concept development project. I analyzed the story and related it to real life. I also used sketches and colors from the actual book to work off from in my process work. My knowledge of analyzing definitely improved even more. My weakness in this project was time management. I spent way too much time working on the space model and building in every detail. Then I would realize something was wrong and start over. Next time I need to know what parts of the project need priority and not spend all my time on one thing. My strength in the project was relating all my choices and design in the room. I was able to tie all my final work back to the original concept, the book.

ID 201 FA10 Kitchen Design

(Picture will be up soon. Difficulties with scanner.)

When designing the kitchen, my concept was my original one from the Goodnight Sunrise lyric. When I started my early process work I wanted to create a kitchen that was not only an accessible kitchen, but a place to entertain as well. My overall floor plan shows a kitchen completely open to the living room and that is exactly how I wanted it. Almost everything in the kitchen is accessible. From a lowered island to pulldown shelving. This project was very difficult for me with getting all the measurements right and making everything accessible. Yes, there is a wheelchair user, but there are two others who are not in a wheelchair. Remembering that was definitely a weakness for me. I tried to put myself in their shoes to see what it would be like to work and move in the kitchen. To see what it would be like. To see what would and wouldn’t work. I see this as one of my strengths in this project. I even added guest seating along the wall for entertainment purposes. My knowledge of dimensions in a kitchen greatly improved. I didn’t have much previous knowledge beforehand. After this project I feel as if now I know a lot more about kitchens and what can be improved to make things a lot easier.

ID 201 FA10 Concept

First Process Sketches


For my concept I choose a song by my favorite band Goodnight Sunrise. Their song “Champions of the Weekend” talks about the struggles of being away from home. From this song I choose the lyric, “the roof is caving in and I’m searching for signs of open doors and open skies.” I analyzed this lyric and took out my keywords chaos, safety, and symbols. From there I developed my concept model to try and represent these things. I tried to show chaos in symbols surrounded by safety. This process was very time consuming. I had a lot of early sketches and models that I worked from before I developed my final model. I developed more skills from this process work and being able to analyze something deeper than just it’s surface meaning. My weaknesses of this project was not knowing where to start. I started going the wrong way in my early sketches because I wasn’t fully understanding the lyrics. I wasn’t digging deep enough. My strengths in this project was definitely the model building. When I see something 2D and abstract on paper, I enjoy creating it into a more 3D abstract form. This project was a big step for me. I feel like I understand more on which steps to take to get to the final work.