CNR ITC & CIB WG84 INTERNATIONAL MEETING, ROME 2002

Universal Design – Uncovering Methodologies to Incorporate the Needs of Children in to the Design Process

Marcus Ormerod, Catherine Green

Research Centre of Construction and Property Management, Faculty of Business and Informatics, The University of Salford, Salford, M7 9NU, UK

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Abstract

The aim of this paper is to address the need for inclusion of the end user in the design process and focuses on involving children in the development of the built environment. It draws on work done with children in other areas such as education and social work to assess the value of involving children in research and whether any of the lessons learnt are transferable to the built environment.

This paper forms part of the early stages of PhD study and overlaps with work currently being undertaken by the SURFACE (Salford University Research Focus on Accessible Environments) team. This research has been carried out by a literature review of texts linking children, research and design.

Keywords: Accessible environments, design, children, research methodologies.

Introduction

Universal design is concerned with designing buildings that are suitable for all possible end users, and not disabling building users with inadequate or inappropriate design solutions. Recent debate has recognized the need to include the end user in the building design process in an attempt to shift the focus of the designer from purely aesthetic to functionality. Although much of this work has been concerned primarily with consideration of the needs of people with disabilities there is now a move towards discussing universal design in terms of all end users.

In its broadest terms, universal design is a social movement primarily concerned with making products, environments and communication systems usable to the greatest extent possible by the broadest spectrum of users (Imrie & Hall, 2001).

Imrie & Hall (2001) and Lawson (1997) support the view that design of the built environment is a quality of life issue for everyone necessitating involvement in the design process and evaluation of the built environment by the end users. The same quality of life should be offered to children but to date the needs of children in the design of the built environment have not been considered other than through the belief that parents/adults know what children need in a given situation.

The solution lies in the will of society to offer children a quality childhood, where children are recognized as citizens and not extensions of their parents (Hendricks, 2001).

Hendricks (2001) believes that children need to be active participants in order for their needs to be met, as adults can only see the world through adult eyes. There is evidence of a growing acknowledgement of the value of the opinions of children, and an acceptance of the ability of children to contribute in all areas of society and be involved in the development of the society in which they live.

The built environment affects the quality of life of all inhabitants regardless of age, ability and status. The building design process must specifically consider the needs of all end users if the aim is to provide a fully universally accessible built environment. If the current emphasis of the design process is on aesthetic form of a building this emphasis must be shifted towards the building’s usability. In order for this transition to be managed successfully then the end user that is currently disabled by building design must be involved in the design process in some way.

The Children Movement

In December 1991 the United Kingdom government ratified the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Rights of the Child and thus committed to recognizing and accepting the rights of children to express their views on all issues pertaining to family and community (Shier, 2001). In making this commitment the UK government accepted a level of participation of children in debate that had previously not been seen. This debate has led to the construction of models of participation specifically for use with children to ensure that real participation takes place and not that adults are merely paying lip service to it (Shier, 2001).

In the sociology of childhood, it is now commonplace to assert that children are and must be seen as actors in the social construction and determination of their own lives, the lives of those around them and of their society (Alderson, 1995).

The UN convention, I believe, marked the beginning of a major cultural shift in society. Various arenas such as education and sociology have accepted the requirements of the convention and the need to consider children in a new way, and have started a process that will eventually have an impact on the design of the built environment.

In 1994 the Economic and Social research Council in the UK began a major consultation which culminated in the launch of the ESRC Children 5-16 Research programme. This was the first programme of its kind in the UK and aimed to

…throw light on contemporary childhood in the UK …looking at children as social actors (Prout, 2002).

The programme which ran from 1995-2001 focused on developing research approaches that allowed children a voice in society, and allowed them to be participants in social research (Prout, 2002). A large amount of research data was generated from the programme and has been published extensively in sociology arenas but much of the work could be replicated or adapted to allow children a similar voice in the development of their built environment. This, I believe, would contribute significantly to a move towards the achievement of universal design.

…studies within the programme have demonstrated that children have valuable insights and perspectives to offer on many aspects of their lives. I therefore hope that policy makers and practitioners will take up the invitation to draw on the broad scope of Children 5-16 programme’s evidence, deploy it in the policy arenas they contribute to and use it as one of their points of departure for new thinking in the years ahead (Prout, 2002).

The consideration of children within the design process in the built environment has to date been limited to the avoidance of danger (Lawson, 1997) and dangerous features (Imrie & Hall, 2001) and the acknowledgement of the commercial aspect.

Children represent human capital and are worthy of social investment (Wilson, 1995)

But there is now evidence to suggest that by failing to acknowledge the views of children regarding the built environment we are missing out on an opportunity to improve the design process and move towards the notion of universal design. Research with children in other fields has shown it to be productive and there is therefore a need to consider the options for including children in the research process in the built environment. In the same way as all members of society, children should be considered in the context of universal design.

Children and Design – possible methodologies

Childhood experts are experts in the adult definition of childhood – not in life as experienced by children (Hendricks, 2001)

Adult researchers form their own opinions of what children say and do, and how they behave and are giving themselves license to interpret and translate the behaviour of children (Waksler, 1991). In order to appreciate the needs of children in the design of the built environment then children must be involved in the design process in some way. Zeizel (1984) supports the view that designers need to gather information on how people behave in physical settings in order to improve design so it would be useful to assess how children behave in particular settings in order to improve the design for those children. Heft (1999) believes that it is essential to observe children in order to assess the play potential they attribute to their surroundings as this their means of measuring successful design. It is unlikely that there is only one research tool that is appropriate for use with children but observation methodologies would appear to satisfy the criteria put forward by Zeizel (1984) and Heft (1999).

For an adult to find out more about children’s real play needs, the adult needs to go much deeper into play and the lives of children than just to ask them what they want in their play yard (Hendrick, 2001).

If we accept that participation of the end user is important, and that we can learn a lot about design from observation, it would seem that observing children in particular environments would contribute positively to the universal design debate.

Observing behaviour in physical settings generates data about people’s activities and the relationships needed to sustain them; about regularities of behaviour; about expected uses, new uses, and misuses of a place; and about behavioural opportunities and constraints that environments provide (Zeizel, 1984).

When dealing with children however observation methodology becomes more complicated if a true view of what children see is to be understood. Behaviour can change under observation. Zeizel (1984) talks about the Hawthorne effect where people adapt their behaviour in accordance with whoever is observing them but acknowledges that with time and familiarity with the observer this effect can be minimized. This effect is more striking with children however who would generally assume that an adult observer is in a position of authority and would change their behaviour accordingly. For example, children may be reluctant to climb on furniture if an adult is observing but mat be happy to do so if only children are present. An element of participation could be adopted to alleviate this effect.

The participant role provides access to the world of everyday life from the standpoint of a member or insider (Jorgensen, 1989)

But the problem for the adult researcher of children is how to be accepted as a participant and not be viewed as an authoritative figure. Mandell (1991) adopted the role of the ‘least-adult` in her research with children in an attempt to enter in to ‘children’s space and time`.

The least-adult role demands entry into children’s perspectives, and thus necessitates negotiating an acceptable participant-observer role with children (Mandell, 1991).

In order to appreciate a child’s view of the world therefore one almost has to try to become a child. Fine & Sandstrom (1988) believe that a similar insight can be achieved by adopting the role of ‘friend’, and that as long as efforts are made to alleviate the

assumed power levels between adults and children then children will openly offer their thoughts and perspectives. In order to assess the needs of children in terms of the built environment therefore I would suggest that we need to completely rethink our methodological approaches and focus on what the child sees rather than what the adult thinks the child sees.

From early on children should be participating otherwise they will learn to become passive observers of daily life rather than active members of society (Hendricks, 2001).

Accepted research methodologies take on new dimensions when dealing with children, for example how to encourage children to participate in a new setting that will undoubtedly not feel comfortable to them. Apart from adopting roles such as ‘least-adult’ or ‘friend’, researchers have attempted to make research fun in order to aid participation. Thomas & O’Kane (1998) have used gimmicks such as ‘pocket decision-making charts’ and ‘pots and beans’ games in order to gain the confidence and interest of children.

The play approaches help research teams to enjoy being together as well as working together, and help to sustain the enthusiasm of children who are usually volunteers (Alderson, 1995).

Davis (1998) describes techniques such as interviews using stories, finishing sentences, role play, visual prompts and videos in encouraging children to provide information. Similar techniques were described by Alderson (1995) when using sticky dots to highlight likes and dislikes in a particular area. Prout (2002) describes ‘guided walks through neighbourhoods’ as a useful means of gaining children’s perspectives a technique that could be particularly useful in gaining insight in to children’s perceptions of the built environment.

Morgan et al (2002) used a combination of many of these techniques in their work with children using focus groups. They acknowledged that many problems using focus groups with children were the same as when researching with adults such as encouraging participation, stimulating discussion as so on but recognized the need to change the solutions for children.

A particular issue highlighted by our groups was the greater difficulty in accessing children’s meanings compared with adults, reflecting differences in language and in the social worlds of children (Morgan et al, 2002).

Morgan et al (2002) found it useful to move away from an official setting such as school, use first names, sit on the floor to set visual levels and so on in order to encourage active participation. They kept sessions short and used small numbers of children to ensure that everyone had a voice and was heard, and highlighted many areas that would not be of concern when researching with adults in the built environment. Strong parallels can be drawn however between these research techniques and those required when researching with children and adults with learning disabilities and special needs.

The ethical issues apparent in all research are exaggerated when researching children. Alderson (1995) in her work with Bernardos puts forward ten topics for ethical consideration including the costs and benefits of the research to the children, privacy and confidentiality, selection, information, consent, dissemination and impact on the children. Again parallels can be drawn with research work in the accessibility and disability arena.

Empowerment is associated with allowing children to choose to become active participants in the research process, employing tools which offer children the maximum opportunity to put forward their views and reducing the social distance and re-negotiating the power relations between researcher and child (Davis, 1998)

Involving children in the design process and moving on the universal design debate is going to involve a complete change in the way we consider research methodology and children as members of society in their own right.

Conclusion

Universal design is concerned with including the needs of all end users in the design of the built environment. Children use and are inspired by the built environment, and the quality of the built environment can have a significant impact on the quality of life of children.

Since the ratification of the UN Convention (1991) recent changes in the way that children are considered as important members of society can be seen in and around the built environment. The Children’s Play Council, Barnardo’s and the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR) are some of the consultants taking an interest in the health and safety of children by implementing home zones, safe routes to parks and leisure centers, recreational green spaces and so on.

The tide is therefore changing, children are being considered as citizens in their own right. There is still along way to go however as adults continue to make major decisions on behalf of children and are failing to acknowledge that children can be useful participants in deciding on their own requirements.

This small and early part of PhD study has attempted to uncover some of the methodologies that could be used to incorporate the needs of children in to the design process. There is evidence of significant effort in the built environment to cater for the needs of children. Supermarkets for example are now showing significant signs of accommodating children by introducing play areas, changing facilities and so on. What is missing however is evidence of a genuine interest in user participation in terms of how children use these facilities, and how these facilities could be improved with the involvement of children in the design process.

This PhD study will now go on to concentrate further on how designers of supermarkets have worked to design the child-centred areas we see, and to investigate whether or not with the involvement of children these areas could be improved. Some or all of the methodologies discussed here will be used in this process. Universal design will only be achieved if designers adopt the principles of participation, inclusion and focus on the end user.

References

Alderson, P. (1995) Listening to children: Children, Ethics and Social Research. Barkingside: Barnardo’s.

Davis, J.M. (1998). Understanding the Meanings of Children: A Reflexive Process. Children and Society. (12) Pp 325-335

Fine, C.A. & Sandstrom, K.L. (1988) Knowing Children: Participant Observation with Minors. Sage Publications, California.

Heft, H. (1999). Affordances of Children’s Environments: A Functional Approach to Environmental Description. In Nasar, J.L. & Preiser, W.F.E. (Ed). Directions in Person-Environment Research and practice. Aldershot. Ashgate Publishing Ltd.

Hendricks, B.E. (2001). Designing for Play. Ashgate Publishing Company, Aldershot.

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Jorgensen, D. (1989). Participant Observation: A Methodology for Human Studies. Sage Publication, Newbury Park.

Lawson, B. (1997). How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified. Architectural press, Oxford.

Mandell, N. (1991). The Least Adult Role in Studying Children. In Waksler, F.C. (Ed). Studying the Social Worlds of Children. Sociological Readings. The Falmer Press, London.

Morgan, M., Gibbs, S., Maxwell, K. and Britten, N. (2002). Hearing Children’s Voices: Methodological Issues in Conducting Focus Groups with Children aged 7-11 years. Qualitative Research Journal. (2)1. Pp 5-20.

Penton, J.H. (1999). The Disability Discrimination Act: Inclusion; a workbook for building owners, facilities managers and architects. London. RIBA Publications.

Prout, A. (2002). Researching Children as Social Actors: an introduction to the Children 5-16 Programme. Children and Society (16) Pp 67-76.

Shier, H. (2001). Pathways to participation: Openings, Opportunities and Obligations. Children and Society. (15). Pp 107-117

Thomas, N & O’Kane, C. (1998) The Ethics of Participatory Research with Children. Children and Society. (12) Pp 336-348

Waksler, F.C. (1991). Studying Children: Phenomenological Insights. In Waksler, F.C. (Ed). Studying the Social Worlds of Children. Sociological Readings. The Falmer press, London.

Weinstein, C.S. & David, T.G. (1987). Spaces for Children: The Built Environment and Child Development. New York. Plenum Press.

Zeizel, J. (1984). Inquiry by Design: Tools for Environment-Behaviour Research. Cambridge University Press, New York.

1. PUBLIC SPACES/BUILDINGS 1.3 M. Ormerod, C. Green 1