Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design

According to the World Health Organization (Who), at least 15 percent of the world's population lives with a disability that limits participation in everyday life, which the Who identifies as a human rights issue: “people are disabled by society, not just by their bodies” (“10 Facts on Disability,” Nov. 2017, World Health Organization, https://www.who.int/features/factfiles/disability/en/). This principle demands a major reexamination of how society has dealt with its disabled people. Bess Williamson's groundbreaking history is a compelling account of the twentieth-century evolution of design as a method to address the needs and rights of the disabled. Progress has been slow, moving from public care for those excluded from “normal” life toward full participation in public life, with the disabled claiming increasing responsibility for making changes that affect their lives. Williamson identifies this progress as “making disability ordinary” (p. 2). Incorporating disability into everyday life begins with access, the “physical usability of architecture, infrastructure, and products by disabled people” (p. 11). Williamson's “narratives of inclusion” trace shifts in the approach to access (p. 15). When veterans returned from World War II with missing limbs, the government sponsored prosthetics research to help connect disabled people with their lived-in environment. Prosthetically adapting to everyday civilian life allowed amputees to perform routine activities such as shaving, while special controls allowed them to drive cars and architectural modifications allowed them to live independently. Subsequent midcentury institutional research and advocacy focused on self-help through gadgetry and accessible practices in designs for buildings and public spaces.