Accessibility Awareness
ND architecture students sample disabilities to learn equitable design
Architecture student Ginika Kalu quickly discovered the perils of using a wheelchair: elevator doors that close as you enter, bathroom doors that are hard to open while sitting, and finally, a pile of bricks partly blocking the basement hallway in the Walsh Family Hall of Architecture.
With room for only her wheels, she built up some hallway speed, folded her arms in to avoid hitting the wall or the bricks—and sailed through the opening with an inch to spare on each side.
Fellow student Angela Li complimented Kalu’s ingenuity before trying on blindfolds for about a minute, deciding the world was too dangerous for that. Classmate Hayden Strong tried a set of crutches for about the length of a football field before also giving up from exhaustion.
The students were participating in late September in an annual event called Accessibility Awareness Day, where budding architects in their fourth year divide into groups for the morning and try to navigate campus using a wheelchair, crutches, or blindfolds. The purpose is to experience firsthand the challenges or ease of accessibility in the kinds of buildings they could soon be designing.
Latest Colleges & Schools
- Using anti-racist messaging boosts credibility of human rights groups, Notre Dame study showsHow can human rights groups criticize governments' human rights violations without appearing racist or fueling racism toward diaspora groups? New research by a University of Notre Dame human rights expert sheds light on the complex relationship between race and human rights, especially as it plays out between human rights groups and governments.
- College of Arts & Letters launches ND Population Analytics to accelerate policy-relevant work through big dataIn partnership with the University of Notre Dame’s Poverty Initiative, the College of Arts & Letters has launched a data-focused research effort that will foster and advance multidisciplinary work on a wide range of pressing demographic issues facing society, including poverty, rising inequality, declining health in the United States, family instability and falling religious participation.
- Pulte Institute joins global consortium using research to end povertyThe United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded $75 million to a consortium of leading global institutions, including the Pulte Institute for Global Development at the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs, to enhance the effectiveness of poverty alleviation programs through research.
- As Northern Ireland grapples with legacy of the Troubles, Notre Dame experts influence policy to prioritize victims’ rightsNorthern Ireland has long struggled to reckon with the trauma of the Troubles, a 30-year conflict that killed approximately 3,700 people — many of them civilians — through sectarian violence. Experts in the University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs recently influenced the design of a Northern Ireland commission to address the conflict’s legacy, sharing key lessons from Colombia on the importance of centering victims in truth and reconciliation.
- When countries hide their true public debt, they hurt themselves, their citizens and their lendersGlobal public debt may soon collectively catch up to the worldwide gross domestic product (GDP), likely matching it by 2030. New research from a Notre Dame economist suggests that this could happen even sooner, thanks to countries’ hidden debts. This misreported debt can lead to higher interest rates for borrowers and lower recovery rates for lenders, suggesting indirect adverse effects on global financial stability and consumer welfare.
- WSJ editor and columnist Gerry Baker to deliver Thomas H. Quinn LectureGerry Baker, editor-at-large of The Wall Street Journal, is the featured speaker for the Thomas H. Quinn Lecture Series. “Unpacking the Election: Where Do We Go From Here?” will take place at 3:30 p.m. Friday (Nov. 8) in the Jordan Auditorium at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business.
