Reference no: EM133350357

Case Study: As Davies and Lifchez (1987) have argued, access should not be viewed as a constraint on architectural design but should be conceived of as a 'major perceptual orientation to humanity' (p. 49). In this sense a range of authors note that design professionals increasingly need to reject the idea that there are technical solutions to socio-political problems, that there needs to be some kind of deconstruction of the ideological constructs that underpin the aesthetic ideals of design. Indeed many writers concur that there can never be a socially sensitive or just architecture given the present structural underpinnings of architectural practices (Knesl, 1984; Knox, 1987). As Crawford (1992) concludes, 'the restricted practices and discourse of the profession have reduced the scope of architecture to two equally unpromising polarities: com promised practice or esoteric philosophies of inaction' (p. 41). Yet, as Crawford suggests, such an impasse need not necessarily prevent architects from reconnecting their practices to social and economic questions, to issues, for instance, relating to the elderly, poor, people with disabilities, and the homeless. Unfortunately one still waits for such connections to be made. Yet others are more optimistic in seeing the seeds of liberating environments and of the possibilities for non-ableist architectural prac tices. Hayden (1981), for instance, considers the elements of a transformative agenda which would challenge the socially oppressive nature of much past and contemporary architecture. She calls for a 'new paradigm of the home, the neighbourhood, and the city', one which describes, as a first step, the 'physical, social, and economic design of human settlements that could support, rather than restrict, activities of people with disabilities' (p. 7). Likewise Weisman (1992) locates the problematical aspects of access, of exclusion and segregation, in the comprehensive system of social oppression, not, as he puts it, the consequences of failed architecture or prejudiced architects. This is a crucial point because, in conceptual terms, it situates the actions and practices of agents and institutions in a wider framework of social structures, values and ideologies and avoids a reductionism whi< posits that people and/or institutions are somehow, independently, blame for the perpetuation of disablist environments.

Question: Disability and Architecture: After reading discuss how this reading have furthered your understanding about the obstacles to access in society that exist for people with disabilities.