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Design
How America’s individualistic streak shaped design for disability
DIY innovators, and consumer products, have had to fill gaps in policy
By
Patrick Sisson
Apr 3, 2019, 4:58pm EDT
Installation view of “Access+Ability,” a recent exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum that featured 70 works of inclusive design.
Chris J. Gauthier
It’s perhaps predictable, in a country subscribed to a mythos of rugged individualism, frontier spirit, and all manner of bootstrap-pulling, that the United States’ approach to disability rights is focused on the individual. But as art historian Bess Williamson argues in Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design, her new book examining the evolution of accessible product design, regulations, and public spaces, that focus on the individual is in many ways detrimental to the social safety net.
“You might think that because the [...]