Lesson 6:
TRADING SPACES GLOBALLY: CROSS-CULTURAL UD
TITLE ROW: Globes, etc.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES: After cross-cultural Mission 6, you can:
- Describe how cultural values, traditions, and religions affect the design of living spaces and their furnishings, plus family activities at home and in the community.
- Make cross-cultural comparisons of international UD products by applying the UD Principles and identifying differences with possible reasons.
WORD BANK: Multi-cultural, diversity, housing and culture, international UD Asynonyms,@ Inclusive Design, Design for All,
CONTENT HEADINGS:
Wake up Quiz: Signs of Increasing U. S. Diversity
Universal Design in a Diverse, Multi-Cultural World
A World of UD Learning Resources
Hot UD News from Other Nations!
Universal Design Initiatives from Asia
Japan: A Hotbed of Universal Design Ideas
IMAGES:
Sign of increasing U. S. diversity: Bilingual safety cone
World map showing the hemispheres and continents
Afghan refugee youths in Pakistan
International children (4)
Muslim family at home
Chinese children with two cultural artifacts
Norwegian mother boarding a bus with stroller and baby
Handy Birdy from Japan
User-friendly new Centrair Terminal in Japan
American kids (softball team)
LINKS:
Global Universal Design Educators Online News
http://www.universaldesign.net
European Institute for Design and Disability. Stockholm Declaration: Good design enABLES, bad design DISables (EIDD)
www.design-for-all.org
Lifetime Homes from the United Kingdom
http://www.jrf.org.uk/housingandcare/lifetimehomes/partMandLTH.asp
UkiiD Good, Inclusive Design Meets Disability Discrimination Act Requirements
http://www.ukiid.org/index.html
IDIA Universal Workplace Design
http://www.idia2002.com/index.asp
Norwegian Illustrated Guide for Architects
www.be.no/beweb/regler/meldinger/043UniversellUtf.pdf
Virtual Tour of Universally Designed Centrair Terminal in Japan
http://www.cjiac.co.jp/foreign/english/virtual/virtual_01.html
Kumamoto (Japan) Community Universal Design Campaign web site
http://ud.pref.kumamoto.jp
International Association for Universal Design (founded in Japan in 2002)
http://www.iaud.net/
'No one is 100% disabled. And no one is 100% healthy.' (HIH Prince Tomohito)
QUOTABLE QUOTES:
- The first barrier to UD is the human mind. If we could put a ramp...the first thing down would be the understanding that all barriers are the result of NARROW THINKING (Covington).
- ...Urban environments and transit systems are not yet fully equipped to cope with seniors and disabled users...we should bring an end to designs aimed only at the young and able-bodied (Yokohama Conference speaker).
- Although an intense need is obvious, almost no market demand exists for UD. But curbside recycling advocates took 20 years to get the service into most neighborhoods. So: the UD Arevolution@ is roughly 10 years oldBabout halfway to the Mainstream. Viva 2013!! (Tenenbaum).
LESSON 6 LEARNING ACTIVITY CHOICES:
We suggest starting with an international/multi-cultural guest panel to give the class or group an overview of family life, home living, and UD in their cultures. Afterward, have small groups interview each guest, then choose an activity from those below and search for additional factual info.
- INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN BOARD/PHOTO DISPLAY: Select one or more countries (other than your own) and prepare a culturally-specific display of pictures of their CONTEMPORARY lifestyles and home-related UD products and features. Potential sources of photos and info: Middle School and Junior High Social Science and Geography textbooks; and web sites from specific countries or cultures (including sites in other UDLS Lessons).
- CONTEMPORARY CROSS-CULTURAL FAMILY HOUSING PROFILE: Using your Web research skills, plus first-person or virtual interviews and surf-visits to a country/culture that is very different from America, develop a written culture-specific family profile that objectively describes their contemporary (today's) housing and home life. Try to avoid culturally-biased comments that will label you as an Ugly American.
Library Lurkers' bonus: Prepare a comparison report on the above factors during the EARLY HISTORY of the same culture, with photos and data from THEIR history books, museums, and at Back to the Future libraries.
Helpful hint: Excellent sources of international UD information are the Proceedings of the three Design for the 21st Century UD conferences held in the early MillenniumBespecially the 2004 conference in Rio de Janeiro: http://wwwdesignfor21st/org.proceedings/ Choose and print a presentation or two, preferably written by an author from the country you're interested in.
Other possibilities are articles from Preiser & Ostroff's UD Handbook To see the Handbook's Table of Contents on the publisher's web site, CLICK HERE.
If a nearby library does not have the book, allow enough time to order article copies via Interlibrary Loan from the nearest large public or university library.
- IS THAT REALLY US? Watch and take notes on two or three segments from Trading Spaces (TLC Channel) or other housing-focused television show (House & Garden TV or Extreme Makeovers' home edition). What they show and tell people from other cultures about typical American housing?
(How) does the show give an accurate portrait of the Aaverage@ U. S. family and its home, including culturally-specific examples? Think about what and how the producer might change the show to present a true picture of typical American family housing in your community, with examples.
Look for UD examples in the original or redesigned house, furnishings and equipment, or yard--either highlighted by the host or client family, or just filmed but not mentioned? Although not rabid fans, we have watched the shows. We haven't heard them mention UD or seen more than one or two examples as the camera passed by. But we have hopes that YOU will!
With no real correct answers to the above scenario, your Guides probably will judge your outcomes on the extent of your research effort; use of specific, measurable terms to explain the hows and whys; evidence of critical thinking; and objectivity (NO Ugly American-type dissin'!).
- Multi-lingual Prescription Bag note: See if you can figure out the foreign languages in which they will print your prescription, if you ask.
OUTCOME-BASED ASSESSMENT:
UD is an excellent vehicle for infusing multi-cultural competencies into schools. A multi-cultural competency is the knowledge, skills, and personal attributes that people (YOU!) need to live and work in a diverse world.
For now, we'll list the three personal attributes for you to think about as you read and re-hash Lesson 4: Flexibility, Respect (NO dissin=), and Empathy (...Walk a mile in his or her moccasins). In one or two ways, Guides may have you apply the multi-cultural competencies you've developed:
They'll give you the list of specific knowledge categories and skills/abilities that they'll evaluate from group discussion of A and/or B below. We suggest a self evaluation of 1) the skills you already had, 2) those learned from this lesson, and 3) those you need to learn more about:
A. In your class or youth group, try to reach one or more conclusions about whether specific UD products and environments (individually or as a group) are the same, regardless of the cultural setting. First, discuss in small groups, then report your conclusion(s) to the full group. The total group may then seek a consensus answer to the question posed above.
B. At the Millennium, most schools are experiencing a more diverse student body as the numbers and proportions of Hispanic, Asian, and other immigrant students increase rapidly.
In a carefully introduced and supervised session, youth will compare and contrast: 1) similarities and commonalities, and 2) differences between the majority culture and each new and/or existing minority group represented in their school.
If your school is UNI-cultural (all or most students are Caucasian), invite a MULTI-cultural panel of teens from other schools to present their perspectives on similarities and differences between themselves and the majority group.
Open the floor to total group discussion, and calmly and rationally try to reach consensus on a representative number of statements about the:
1) similarities and 2) differences. Be careful in all discussion to present your compare and contrast statements in terms of DIFFERENCES, hows, and whys rather than Abetter or worse@ comments. Be-e-e Objective!