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Disability pride is about accepting and honoring each person’s uniqueness and seeing it as a natural and beautiful part of human diversity

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For those in wheelchairs, having an everyone-else experience in a public building is a rare thing indeed.

- CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

In a 1997 article titled " Rampway to Heaven," Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer praised the Kennedy Center's newly reopened Concert Hall as a "marvel." While he usually wrote about politics, Krauthammer, who used a wheelchair, was so pleased with the accessible experience at the "brilliantly renovated" Concert Hall that he devoted an entire weekly column to it.

Quinn Evans is proud to have led the design team for the Concert Hall renovation, which included Ron Mace, the "father of universal design," and incorporated many accessible design strategies still employed by the Kennedy Center - and theaters throughout the country - today. Even now, more than 30 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law, many public buildings still lack basic accessibility features.
We seek to not only make existing buildings physically accessible but to achieve truly inclusive design that supports humans in all our diversity - giving everyone the "everyone else" experience Krauthammer prized.

In addition to increasing accessibility, our work at Baltimore Center Stage created a more welcoming and inclusive environment.

Transcending ADA

The ADA's accessibility standards for buildings focus primarily on accommodating people with mobility challenges. With our people-first ethos, we design for and beyond ADA mandates to empower people with all kinds of differences - including variations in age, gender, culture, religion, vision, hearing, cognition, and sensory processing.

As a firm rooted in historic preservation, we take the long view. Our inclusive approach is rooted in lifecycle thinking; we recognize that anyone who is able-bodied is only temporarily so. Our bodies, senses, and minds change over time, so it's not only fair but indeed in everyone's best interest to design places that support the full range of human experience.

We have to stop treating diversity as being not the normal state when it is actually the normal state.

- BETTY SIEGEL, DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF ACCESSIBILITY AND VSA AT THE KENNEDY CENTER

Because of our equity mindset, we bake inclusion into our design process from the beginning. When working with an existing building, our design teams consider the broadest range of potential users. As part of our inclusive approach, we use three key strategies to help us identify opportunities to increase inclusion in our designs.

Stakeholder Engagement

We facilitate discussions among users with a wide range of backgrounds and abilities to understand what they need to feel supported and included in the space.

Internal Champion

While we expect everyone on our team to be thinking about inclusion, we designate one team member to research best practices for the space type and advocate for maximum inclusion.

Visual Aids

We create plans, renderings, and sensory maps to help us understand how the space will be experienced by different people and identify areas for improvement.

We leveraged sensory mapping at the National Museum of American History's Molina Family Latino Gallery to deliver an accessible and inclusive visitor experience.

Breaking Barriers

It can feel daunting to incorporate even basic accessibility standards in existing buildings and places, much less to accommodate the entire spectrum of human diversity. However, we find that there is much overlap between different groups' needs and that designing to support people with one challenge invariably helps people with other challenges - making life better for everyone. One example is the provision of curb cuts at street intersections, which were originally designed for people who use personal mobility devices like wheelchairs, but also help caregivers pushing strollers, workers wheeling carts, etc.

In our practice of renewing existing buildings, we have developed countless solutions to make these structures more inclusive. The following are three common areas where existing buildings limit inclusion and design strategies we've used to address them.

Sloped walkways and clear sight lines at Michigan State Capitol's Heritage Hall help everyone move around the building more easily.

Entries

Many public buildings, especially historic ones, have grand and imposing entries. A standard formula is a set of majestic doors reached via a monumental stair. While impressive, these stately entries tend to feel unwelcoming in addition to being inaccessible to people who cannot use stairs.

We believe that everyone, regardless of their abilities, should enjoy the same entry experience. We have proven time and again that historic building entries can be modified to accommodate everyone while respecting the original design. At the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, with its rigorous Neoclassical character, we created symmetrical sloped walkways flanking the monumental stair at the building's National Mall entrance. Conversely, at Old City Hall, an already asymmetrical Gothic Revival building, an accessible walkway on one side of the entrance was more appropriate. At Allegan District Library, our addition to the historic Carnegie library creates a new main entrance that is accessible to everyone.

Increasing transparency at building entries, as we designed at Baltimore Center Stage, helps visitors orient themselves and plan a path through the space. This preview helps everyone navigate the space more easily and is especially helpful for people with cognitive disabilities. Similarly, a new glazed entry vestibule at the National Air and Space Museum will let visitors see the queuing and security screening process from outside. This helps prepare people who get nervous standing in line or are discomfited by security guards.

The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) is taking a novel approach to make the museum's entry more welcoming. The BMA had already shifted the main entrance from the grand historic entrance to a ground-level entrance off the East Lobby to increase accessibility. Then in 2019, the museum debuted a series of installations that transform the East Lobby into an immersive work of art. Quinn Evans worked with the BMA and artist Mickalene Thomas to bring " A Moment's Pleasure," the first lobby installation, to life.

We created sloped walkways to either side of the monumental stair at the National Museum of Natural History's National Mall front.

Restrooms

Appropriate restroom facilities distributed throughout a building facilitate working and learning - because, as my colleague Beth Barrett says, "if you're not comfortable, you're not engaging." Unfortunately, many existing buildings are under-toileted - sometimes because they were designed before current plumbing code requirements for the number of fixtures. Because restrooms are a universal human need, it's essential that they be abundant and designed with the wide range of human differences in mind.

Our addition to the National Zoo's Bird House provides the building with restrooms for the first time. This new amenity allows visitors to stay and learn longer because they won't have to leave the building to find a restroom when they need one.

Single-user toilet rooms are the most inclusive type of facility because they provide the most privacy. Everyone appreciates this privacy, especially those who require caregiver assistance with toileting or whose gender expression does not match their sex, for whom single-sex gang-style bathrooms can feel embarrassing or unsafe. At the LOVE Building, all restrooms will be single-user toilet rooms.

Even in highly visited buildings where providing single-user toilet rooms for everyone is not feasible, we can promote inclusion in other ways. At the Lincoln Memorial's Undercroft visitor center, the men's and women's gang-style restrooms will have the same toilet accessories, including sanitary napkin receptacles in all bathroom stalls. We are also providing a family restroom with an adult changing table which provides a comfortable space for caregivers to aid adults or older children who require assistance to use facilities.

Wellness rooms are an important amenity that provide a private location for activities like breastmilk pumping, medication injection, or prayer. Quinn Evans' new Washington, DC, office includes a reservable wellness room that accommodates these activities.

As part of our comprehensive renovation of the National Air and Space Museum we added a Family Care Suite, a cluster of amenities including nursing rooms, quiet rooms, and a companion care restroom, that supports multigenerational visitors.

Stages

Theaters are not the only public buildings that have auditoriums or performance spaces with a raised stage. Other common venues include community centers, museums, schools, and university buildings. Stages in buildings constructed before the ADA was passed in 1990 are often inaccessible to people who cannot use stairs.

Because we believe inclusivity is equity, equal stage access is a priority for our designers. We design for stage access from the auditorium, which allows audience members to come up on stage directly from their seat. If it is not possible to provide an accessible path from the auditorium to the stage, we remove any existing stairs so that everyone must enter the stage using an accessible back-of-house route.

In our renovation of the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater, we redesigned the stage so that it is accessed at the same elevation as the lower cross-aisle, creating a completely level path onto the stage. Previously clustered at the rear of the theater, we reconfigured the auditorium so that accessible seating is available at every level, as required by the ADA. However, we looked beyond the minimum requirements - we doubled the number of required wheelchair locations by providing removable seats in strategic locations.

Our renovation of the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater created a completely level path from the lower entry doors and cross-aisle to the stage.

Better Places for Everyone

We can create better places for everyone by learning from each other.

- ALYSON STEELE, PRESIDENT & CEO AT QUINN EVANS

We believe that designing for a wide range of human differences makes for a better experience for everyone - and that the best way to find out what people need is to ask. Through our stakeholder engagement process, we discovered that Fairfield Library lacked a way for caregivers to use a library computer while looking after a small child. When we purposefully engage with and listen deeply to project stakeholders, innovative solutions like the Fairfield Parent+Child Carrel are born.

As many architects and critics have noted over the years, the built environment reflects societal values. Three decades after the passage of the ADA, it is time our buildings reflected our inclusive ideals.

We worked with manufacturer TMC Furniture to create the Fairfield Parent+Child Carrel, a workstation that supports caregivers of young children.

Learn more about our inclusive approach by watching Quinn Evans' webcasts "Queries & Theories: Creating Shared Experiences" with Betty Siegel of the Kennedy Center and "Queries & Theories: Inclusive Art Experiences by Design" with Leila Grothe of the Baltimore Museum of Art.
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Making Existing Buildings Inclusive for All

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Quinn Evans looks beyond physical accessibility to achieve truly inclusive design - supporting humans in all our diversity.

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Sensory Trust guide to writing an access statement

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A simple guide to writing your own access statement. We guide you through everything you need to know

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Order your copy of Demystifying Disability: Emily Ladau provides a welcoming, easy-to-read guide to disability. I highly recommend this book to readers seeking to deepen their understanding of disability and ableism.

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Writing in braille requires a bit of effort. However, you can write braille both by hand and with a keyboard. Once you learn the braille alphabet, both techniques should be fairly intuitive, but will likely require lots of practice.

1. Learn the alphabet. All braille is written as a combination of six dots per cell. The dots are arranged as two vertical rows of three dots (or, depending on your perspective, three horizontal rows of two dots.) A single letter can be represented by as few as one, or as many as five dots. There is a pattern to the braille alphabet which corresponds to the letter's order in the alphabet.

The first ten letters of the alphabet (A-J) are composed exclusively of some combination of the top four dots.

The next ten letters (K-T) are composed by adding the bottom left hand dot to the previous ten letters. Thus when the top left hand dot (which is generally A) is accompanied by the bottom left hand dot, it becomes "K." Next of course comes "L" which is made by adding the same dot to the formation that means "B" This pattern continues as you go through the alphabet to "T."

The next five letters--excluding "W"--are formed by adding both of the bottom two dots to the original ten letters. "W" is anomalous because the letter didn't exist in French, the language for which braille was originally designed.

2. Learn punctuation. Punctuation is similarly composed of a combination of these six dots in a single cell. A cell consisting exclusively of a single dot on the bottom right indicates that the letter that follows is capitalized. A period is composed of the bottom right hand dot and the two dots in the second row. This is the same as the letter "D," only moved down one row. Similarly, an exclamation point is formed by moving the letter "F" down one row.

To indicate that the whole word is capitalized-not just the first letter-the word will be preceded by two capitalization symbols. That means, two cells of just the bottom right hand dot.

To write a number, use the number symbol. This is the three dots of the right column along with the bottom dot of the left column (making a shape like a backward "L" in the English alphabet). The number symbol can be followed with the symbols generally denoting "A" through "J." An "A" following the number symbol becomes a "1," and a "B" becomes a "2," all the way up to "J" which represents "0."

3. Learn contractions. Because braille print takes up so much more space than the English alphabet, writing is shortened by the use of contractions. There are 189 additional combinations in which common words like "for," "and," or "the" are shortened into a single cell. Similarly, common components in words, including endings like "ing" and "ed" have their own symbols. It is also standard to use abbreviations; for example the letters "tm" are short hand for "tomorrow."

1. Collect your tools. To write braille by hand you need a slate, stylus, and card-stock paper. These can be purchased easily online.

The stylus is a small device, usually a couple inches long. One side is a handle, the other is dull shaft of metal. The metal is pressed into the paper to create the protruding dots that comprise the braille alphabet.

The slate is used to keep the dots precisely spaced into neat rows of appropriate distance from one another. It is composed of two pieces of metal, approximately the length of a page of paper, attached by a hinge. It is typically tall enough to include 4-6 rows of braille.

Card-stock paper is a thick type of paper. When a stylus is applied to it, it will bend into an indention, rather than rip.

2. Clamp the slate around the paper and indent the paper with the stylus. Sandwich the paper between the two metal sheets of the slate. The slate should have several rows of cells with six holes each. Press the stylus through the holes of the slate to make dots in the appropriate patterns.

3. Flip the page. When pushing the dots up, you are essentially writing on the back of the page. That means you need to use the stylus to write from right to left-as if writing a mirror image. Afterward, you flip the paper so that the braille reads normally, from left to right.

1. Get a braillewriter. A Perkins braillewriter is a device much like a standard typewriter, except for it has only six keys. Purchase heavy paper to feed into the top of the device.

Braillewriters start at approximately $700 and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some are designed to be used with a single hand or only require a soft touch. There are also a variety of high tech braillewriters, to be discussed shortly.

2. Learn the keys. The large key in the center of the braillewriter is the space bar. Three keys to each side of the space bar represent the six dots alignments in braille. To type a cell, you will need to hold down the keys for all of the necessary dots at the same time. The slightly raised key to the far left is the line down key and the key parallel to it on the far right is the back space key.

There will also be a large curved piece of plastic on the top of the machine that serves as a cartage return as well as grey nobs on the side that are used to roll the paper into the machine.

In braille the dots are sometimes signified with numbers, where the upper left hand dot is 1, the middle left dot is 2 and the bottom left hand dot is 3. The right column similarly descends from 4-6. If we represent the dots this way, the braillewriter keyboard is arranged: 321 (space) 456.

3. Go high tech. Typewriters, of course, are fairly cumbersome by modern standards. Luckily, there are now electric braillewriters that work on similar principles. Devices like the Mountbatten Brailler and the Perkins Smart Brailler allow you to store documents electronically. They also have audio support and training exercises.

Recent Macintosh computers allow you to program a keyboard or even the touch screen of your iPad to serve as a braille typewriter. In this case keys on a typical QWERTY keyboard can be reprogrammed to have the same functions they would on a brailler.

wikiHow is a "wiki," similar to Wikipedia, which means that many of our articles are co-written by multiple authors. To create this article, 24 people, some anonymous, worked to edit and improve it over time. This article has been viewed 142,605 times.

Updated: December 1, 2021

Medical Disclaimer

The content of this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, examination, diagnosis, or treatment. You should always contact your doctor or other qualified healthcare professional before starting, changing, or stopping any kind of health treatment.

Learning to write in braille takes a bit of work, but with patience, you'll be able to write by hand. All braille is written as a combination of 6 dots per cell. The dots are arranged in 2 vertical rows. A single letter may be as few as 1 dot or as many as 5 dots. For example, the first 10 letters of the alphabet use the top 4 dots, while the next 10 letters add the bottom left-hand dot to the previous 10 letters. So when the top left-hand dot, which is an "A," is accompanied by the bottom left-hand dot, it becomes "K." You'll also need to learn punctuation, which is made up of some combination of the same 6 dots in a single cell. When writing braille by hand, you'll need a slate, stylus, and card-stock paper. Put the paper between the 2 metal sheets of the slate. Press the stylus through the holes of the slate to make your dots. To learn how to type in braille, keep reading!

Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 142,605 times.

Lokeshwari Reddy

"I wanted to know how blind people write and read. After my the help of this article, I got to know. Surely I will also learn this and help the blind people in preparing notes. Thank you for this information." ..." more

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Download Article Download Article Writing in braille requires a bit of effort. However, you can write braille both by hand and with a keyboard. Once you learn the braille alphabet, both techniques should be fairly intuitive, but will likely require lots of practice. Learn the alphabet.

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Accessibility in the Arts: A Promise and a Practice

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Accessibility in the Arts: A Promise and a Practice is an accessibility guide geared toward small-scale arts nonprofits and the potentially expansive publics these organizations serve. It details specific ways in which disabled people are excluded from cultural spaces and offers possible solutions t…

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Accessible Art and Placemaking | STEPS Public Art

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STEPS’ Accessible Art and Placemaking Project explores the ways art can be used to make public spaces accessible to people of all abilities.

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A beautiful film and soundscape -- take a look and listen !

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Blue | Full Experimental Movie | Derek Jarman

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This site is super interesting and informative !! The Resources and Digital Library pages are filled with excellent sources -- exploration encouraged.