Using a red carpet on an inaccessible staircase effectively places a person using a wheelchair as “abnormal” (Picture 1).
When Design Says: “You Don’t Belong”
As I move about in the world, I encounter quite a few inaccessible entrances.
Sometimes they almost feel like mockery. And sometimes it is easy to see that making a particular entrance accessible would require remodelling the entire building. Like the entrance in the photo, where it looks as if the old hotel is sticking out its tongue at you.
It is a remnant, a child of past times.
But the values it expresses are still largely present today. In this case, there is a separate level entrance around the corner, through the restaurant. Having such an “adapted” entrance for disabled people is still an accepted, common feature, even in recent building modifications and entirely new constructions, where this could have been easily avoided.
The hotel entrance is part of a familiar pattern, where an imagined “normal” person is placed at the centre and those deviating in the margins, influencing what is seen as “included” or “extra”, “justified” or “undue”.
Undue Burden for Who, Exactly?
In 2023, Jan Grue wrote a wonderful paper on undue burdens and invisible work [1].
In it, he unpacks the consequences of two small words in the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities [2]: “Undue burden”.
“The principle of ‘undue burdens’ means that an unreasonable amount of invisible work continues to be imposed on disabled people, even in the framework of anti-discrimination.”
Since then, undue burden has been implemented in policy, where, for example, some organisations are exempted from addressing inaccessible entrances if they can argue that the cost is too high.
This means that, in Grue’s words, “the undue burden of accommodation is shifted onto disabled people themselves”.
Understanding the Consequences of Our Design Decisions is Key
One takeaway for me from Grue’s paper was that a burden remains a burden, regardless of who must bear it.
I chose to highlight the entrance in Picture 1 because it is so obviously outdated and at the same time so highly visible. In many cases, the everyday invisible work that is expected of disabled people is far more subtle and intangible. That day, the burden was mine to carry.
I was able to enter, but the sting (one of many) that made me take the photo lingered.
What puzzles me is not why that old hotel entrance looked as it did, but why we continue to repeat the same pattern over and over again.
Universal Design is a force for development. Before your next design decision, ask yourself: Am I creating a division between “us” and “them”? Every choice you make sends a clear message about who belongs and who does not.
References:
- Grue, J. (2023). The CRPD and the economic model of disability: Undue burdens and invisible work. Disability & Society, 39(12), 3119–3135. https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2023.2255734.
- United Nations. (2006). Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/convention-rights-persons-disabilities.