Mastodawn

Parker Morse Jun 4, 2023

Doing some research and came across this image. For those not aware, curb cuts were first installed en masse after the large number of injured veterans came back from WWII. #accessibility

Image credit: https://sketchplanations.com/the-curb-cut-effect

The curb-cut effect

The curb-cut effect illustrates how when we design to benefit disadvantaged or vulnerable groups we end up helping society as a whole. Angela Glover Blackwell explains how campaigning by students with disabilities in Berkeley in the early 1970s led to adding curb cuts to the Berkeley sidewalks to make access easier for those in wheelchairs. Yet it wasn't just people in wheelchairs that it helped. Curb cuts also made life easier for people pushing children in strollers, people using trolleys for deliveries, people pulling a suitcase, those wheeling bikes or on skateboards, and it also helps save lives by guiding people to cross at safe locations. Another example is adding closed captioning to TV that helps anyone watch in a noisy bar, a waiting room, or watching an airline safety video. Or a classic example of universal design in the OXO Good Grips range originally made to be comfortable for holding a peeler even if you have arthritis. It's also a useful analogy for "how laws and programs designed to benefit vulnerable groups, such as the disabled or people of color, often end up benefiting all," (PolicyLink) whether that be increasing broadband access, improving public transport or taking cuts out of curbs. Here's a short, fun video of Gary Karp explaining the curb-cut effect. Thanks to my patron Quintin Balsdon for sharing it with me.

Sketchplanations

Pete Jun 1, 2023

There was a similar effect when kitchen tools like peelers, graters and tin-openers were designed to be chunkier, grippier, easier to hold for older folk with arthritis. Turns out many people like them.

Somcak Jun 1, 2023

@pete I love mine! I have chubby fingers so it's nice to not have to grip too hard on a utensil. Always build for accessibility, the users, and market, are out there waiting for an easier way.

anarchy_punk_transgender

@somcak you know what's better than curb cuts? Raised crosswalks. Makes it easier for disabled folks to cross, and forces cars to slow down.

Somcak Jun 1, 2023

@Flannel_Bear Oh absolutely! Narrow, speed limited streets with speed humps and raised crosswalks? Be still my beating heart!

In my area, New Haven, Connecticut, they've started experimenting with raised crosswalks, finally! They also installed a peanut-shaped roundabout to slow traffic through a neighborhood at a particularly funky shaped intersection. Slowly but surely we'll get complete streets...

Jeffrey Gray Jun 1, 2023

@somcak Designing for all abilities is the way to go. There is typically an approach that works for everyone if we bother to think about it. Often times, it just takes some thought to design in a way that doesn’t specifically “dis”-able people. It is not so much about designing for people WITH disabilities but choosing to not design in a way that only works for some. (edited for clarity)

CottonEyedJo Jun 1, 2023

@somcak very well done on your alt-text and thanks very much😘

Commodore Sixty Bore Jun 1, 2023

@somcak I have an unconfirmed story, but someone from the Army Corps of Engineers told me that curb cuts actually became problematic for the blind. So helper animals and cane use had to be retrained.

Somcak Jun 1, 2023

@sikkdays Interesting! I could imagine that would be an issue. When you're expecting a step/curb edge, then all of a sudden you're in the street!

Bryan H. Rombough Jun 1, 2023

@somcak @sikkdays From what I've read, the the biggest problems with curb ramps & depressed curbs for the visually impared comes from not taking the paths of pedestrial flow into account. It's a little hard to explain here, but what you should try to avoid is having curb ramps that intrude on a pedestrian's path [edit: rather than being a part of it], or placing depressed curbs where they may cause confusion about which way to go.
[1 of 2]

Bryan H. Rombough Jun 1, 2023

@somcak @sikkdays The change in elevation alone usually isn't a problem, especially if TWSIs are incorporated into the design.
[2 of 2]

@somcak @sikkdays feels like curbs would have had to be a lot more consistent than they are now for that to be an issue. Maybe it changed expectations about where people should or shouldn't be crossing the road?

skua Jun 2, 2023

@somcak
My blind elderly mum has had two falls due to the transition section between road level section and normal kerb section.

She is learning to stay away from the ramps or use the centre section.
But that learning may not last.

These things look to have nett benefits to the community.
And that comes at a cost to some.

Somcak Jun 2, 2023

@skua That's what I've been finding from the comments here. That by creating accessibility for some, it detracts from the safety of some others. I'm not sure there's a perfect solution that will truly serve all.

skua Jun 2, 2023

@somcak
Thanks for the OP.
And your approach.

Discussing this stuff is valuable I think, having people thinking about design and understanding that it has effects and can be changed.
#Design

Somcak Jun 2, 2023

@skua You're welcome. I'm a librarian and in my work try to make the library I'm at a safe place by making it accessible to all. In designing for 1 group it inevitably makes it easier for others, but there's always the chance that another group is overlooked.

These are the kinds of conversations we need to have in order to move society forward to be more equitable. Everyone needs to be included in these discussions, IMO.

skua Jun 2, 2023

@somcak
I'm reading about how design has happened both intentionally and accidentally on the cultural scale.
The beginnings of our patriarchy:
https://aus.social/@KayleenGnwmythr/110471103478835515

And #TheDawnOfEverything which looks at how protean cultures can be..

Kerbs, tin-openers, tomorrow a culture that adequately factors in climate change?

Understanding ourselves as users of designs, critics and appreciators of design and designers of things look like good steps towards co-designing a sustainable future.

Kayleen Gnwmythr (@[email protected])

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20230525-how-did-patriarchy-actually-begin?utm_source=Nature+Briefing&utm_campaign=4943fc99ad-briefing-dy-20230601&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c9dfd39373-4943fc99ad-47830664 “ Rather than beginning in the family, then, history points instead to patriarchy beginning with those in power in the first states. Demands from the top filtered down into the family, forcing ruptures in the most basic human relationships, even those between parents and their children. It sowed distrust between those whom people might otherwise turn to for love and support. No longer were people living for themselves and those closest to them. Now, they were living in the interests of the patriarchal state. … The lasting psychological damage of the patriarchal state was to make its gendered order appear normal, even natural, in the same way that class and racial oppression have historically been framed as natural by those in power. Those social norms became today's gender stereotypes, including the idea that women are universally caring and nurturing and that men are all naturally violent and suited to war. By deliberately confining people to narrow gender roles, patriarchy disadvantaged not just women, but also many men. Its intention was only ever to serve those at the very top: society's elites.” #Patriarchy #OriginsOfPatriarchy #Elites

Aus.Social

Somcak Jun 3, 2023

@skua interesting read, thanks!

disability_flag

@somcak Increasing accessibility for disabled should be enough as an argument.
The positive side effects for others are nice but shouldn’t be needed for a decision towards accessibility.

Somcak Jun 2, 2023

@TheAlgorythm Absolutely! That it has positive side effects should be a bonus, not the reason to increase accessibility.

Someone in my comments brought up the wide grip hand-held utensils. They were made & marketed for those with grip issues (arthritis, etc.) but they are useful for all of us. IIRC, when they first came out, they were at specialty stores only because they were considered a specialty item, not something that the masses would benefit from.

@somcak yes! Curb cuts serve as such a great story about accessibility. I gave a talk a while back about this and you’re welcome to use anything you want from the materials:

https://cassidyjames.com/talks/curb-cuts/

Curb Cuts: Accessibility Features Are Just Features (LAS 2019) ⋅ Cassidy James Blaede

Building useful, usable, delightful products that respect privacy.

@somcak I became slightly obsessed after listening to this 99PI episode: https://99pi.org/curb-cuts

Curb Cuts - 99% Invisible

If you live in an American city and you don’t personally use a wheelchair, it’s easy to overlook the small ramp at most intersections, between the sidewalk and the street. Today, these curb cuts are everywhere, but fifty years ago — when an activist named Ed Roberts was young — most urban corners featured a sharp

99% Invisible

Somcak Jun 2, 2023

@cassidy cool thank you!

I became intrigued with curb cuts last year after I had spinal surgery and had to use a walker for 6 weeks. While it was possible to cross the street without curb cuts, it was a heck of a lot easier with them!

I found this image researching for analogies for better design in libraries. It's all connected.

I've learned so much from the comments to this post! It's my first real viral post ever!

Liz Jun 5, 2023

@somcak @cassidy my favorite bit is how Disabled activists originally took hammers to them to get the message across that access was needed

https://newmobility.com/sidewalk-wars/

🙌

Sidewalk Wars

New Mobility

Somcak Jun 5, 2023

@wats_a_ux @cassidy Direct action always works!

Clifton Royston Jun 2, 2023

I'm not disputing this, but I'm curious about the history of that, and your sources.

I don't remember curb cuts being very common when I was a kid ('60s) and remember them starting to become more common only beginning in the late '70s after the ADA was passed, and gradually more so through the '80s and '90s.

Clifton Royston Jun 2, 2023

It's quite possible it did start earlier post-WW II and might be something I just didn't notice as a kid, or that happened sooner in some places than others.

Parenthetically, a couple of Chinese friends who came to the US as adults told me that they were very amazed and impressed that the US had so many curb cuts, along with disabled bathroom facilities, checkout lanes and so on.

It just hadn't occurred to them until they saw it that a society might intentionally take care for that.

Somcak Jun 2, 2023

@CliftonR my source was my grandma, and her walkable neighborhood in San Diego had them when she moved there in the 1950s.

There's a podcast & article linked in the replies here, that goes into the wider use of them starting with the disability rights movement in the 1970s, like you said. I'm now living in Connecticut, & most intersections here in my walkable town have curb cuts. I have no idea how recent they are.

Bob Collins Jun 2, 2023

Can we reconsider the awful bumpy ramps in the curb cuts which are trip hazard themselves?

The only value I can imagine for them is in icy conditions, which is NOT everywhere.

Somcak Jun 2, 2023

@BobCollins yeah, the bumps seem to be a trip hard. But I can see value in them for visually impaired persons, the texture could help them feel where they are on the cut. Maybe my followers could enlighten us...

Mans R Jun 2, 2023

@somcak @BobCollins The bumps are indeed there to help the visually impaired as they can be easily felt with a cane. I've personally never thought of them as a trip hazard.

Maggieci democracy enjoyer Jun 3, 2023

@mansr @somcak @BobCollins Agree that the bumps are for those with canes. The bumps are too close together to cause much tripping, and are a reminder that designing for different needs validates our humanity.

Mans R Jun 2, 2023

@somcak If we got rid of the cars, we wouldn't need kerbs in the first place.

Somcak Jun 2, 2023

@mansr that would be a dream! Whole pedestrian zones where no cars can go!! Some day that will come to the States....

Mans R Jun 2, 2023

@somcak They recently redid my street like that. Everybody loves it. The only complaint was, ironically, from a gym that lost their parking spot (singular). They got a bike rack instead.

Somcak Jun 3, 2023

@mansr it's funny that the gym, where, y'know you go to burn calories, had an issue with burning more calories to get there!

@somcak Some even were installed in European cities after WW1 with an even higher amount of vets and some even predate both as driving over curbs was extremely taxing on suspensions of trucks delivering goods.

But yeah, making things accessible doesn't harm anyone, but will help everyone!!!

Somcak Jun 3, 2023

@kkarhan that's interesting! I noticed in Dublin, when I was there last year, that it was walkable (we stayed at a friend's house in the city, so we were in a neighborhood) and even then in this older part of the city, there were wide sidewalks and curb cuts.

korin 🔜 kodi Jun 3, 2023

@somcak we can do even better! when possible, instead of a curb-cut, raise a section of the road to the crosswalk. this requires no level change on the crosswalk user's part, only motor vehicles. raised crosswalks not only have the benefit of accomodating people of all abilities, but also physically requiring oncoming vehicles to slow down and look for people crossing. it vastly improves safety when crossing the road

Somcak Jun 3, 2023

@korin absolutely! Someone else mentioned raised crosswalks as well. I love them too, even as a driver, because I have to pay attention to everyone. As a pedestrian I like them because if I trip the car has more of a chance of slowing & seeing me. (Side story: I broke my foot in a flat, dry parking lot. Tripped over my own damn feet!!)

Collette Jun 4, 2023

@somcak curb-cut works with sidewalks wide enough to allow someone to cross along the back. [redacted]’s poor back gets tweaked by sloped sidewalks and the nerve pain has kept them from exercising

Somcak Jun 4, 2023

@collette yes, they should be done correctly. They need to go out into the street so if one is going around the corner, they shouldn't have to "dip" down into the curb cut.

Jezus Michał "Le Wzdych" (on)Jun 4, 2023

@somcak, would we actually need curb cuts if we didn't design for cars in the first place? I mean, there wouldn't be need for them if we didn't have curbs in the first place.

Somcak Jun 4, 2023

@mgorny true. Unfortunately in the US, we seem to only design for car culture. I would love to see more pedestrian zones, bus infrastructure, & less car centered design. I think we are slowly getting there.

I live in Connecticut & was very vocal about bus fare being reinstated this April for the first time since March 2020. I think we need more tolling of roads & low/no fare transit. In that way neighborhoods could be designed without car centric design, without curbs.