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General Considerations - for everyone

Can you get to it?
Can you find it?
Can you see it?
Can you reach and use it?
Can it reach you?
A juggling act

Universal design, as it applies within a specific job function, is a division-wide responsibility. While some issues are more pertinent to designers and others might apply more to planners or exhibit maintenence staff, there is considerable overlap through all the job functions.

Here are some universal Universal Design questions:

Can you get to it? (barriers)

• Safety - overhangs, tripping hazards
• Other barriers - non-movable seating and viewing platforms
• Path of travel
• Placement of components

Can you find it? (wayfinding)

• Signage
• Audio and tactile directions
• Placement of components

Can you see it?

• Lighting in the exhibit
• Contrast between exhibit elements and floor/walls (tripping hazards)
• Labels - placement, lighting, type size and style, contrast

Can you reach and use it?

• Height of components
• Depth of components - undercounter knee room, placement of controls and other interactive elements
• Easily manipulated buttons and other controls
• Easily reachable buttons and other controls

Can it reach you?

• Choices - multisensory presentations of the same idea
• Audio labels
• Captions
• Comprehensible text labels (grammatically simple, pictorial elements)
• Consistency - placement, color, size and shape of adaptive elements (e.g. audio help buttons)

Is the space comfortable?

• Seating - amount and type; the different types/purposes of seating. Ample and dispersed seating, with backs and arms, is important - especially for older visitors.
• Lighting
• Noise
• Layout

A juggling act

There is no way to make every part of an exhibit accessible to every visitor. Exhibit developers have to consider competing needs, not only among people with different disabilities, but also among planners, builders, designers and those responsible for exhibit safety, maintainance and preservation. This means that creating exhibits that are meaningful and fun for as many people as possible is a juggling act, mindfully undertaken. Examples of this "juggling act" are sprinkled liberally throughout this document.

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