Junior Civic Lab Disability Rights Group Travels to Study Universal Design

During our most recent Fieldwork Day, we focused on the idea of access and how the built environment can impact and even create disability for members of our community. 

We had guest speaker and principal at Wheeler Kearns Architects Larry Kearns educate the group about universal design principles and how architecture affects accessibility and equity. We then traveled to the Judd Goldman Adaptive Sailing Program on the Museum Campus. They have established a recreational and competitive sailing program with adaptive boats and support personnel, which allows participants of all abilities to access sailing as a sport. They have partnerships across the Chicago Park District and multiple facilities, such as Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, to provide sailing instruction and access to all.

Students learned about the founding of the program, how they meet the needs of participants with varying disabilities (seen and unseen) and how adaptive sailboats are engineered, with demonstrations and instruction from participants and competitive racers involved with the program.

Our objective was for students to see how the design and built environment can either support or serve as a barrier to access for those with disabilities. Many students expressed that they had never thought about the challenges involved in accessing the lakefront and its opportunities and were very excited to know that such a program existed in Chicago.

Click here for photos.