Body Size and the Built Environment: Creating an Inclusive Built Environment using Universal Design

Abstract

Within Geography, the subject of body size is now gaining momentum, with a growing body of research, which focuses on how the sized body interacts with, and experiences spaces. There is some contention as to whether body sizes, which go beyond the norm, are disabled, which is often blamed on a lack of understanding of what disability is. This paper argues that spaces are disabling for different body sizes, due to the way they are constructed, and that spaces need to be made enabling in order to provide equal access for all. It is suggested that writers within geographies of body size could change focus from how spaces are disabling, to how spaces can become enabling for different body sizes, through engaging with the concept of universal design. The main aim of universal design is to accommodate for a range of different bodies, including different body sizes and thus providing equal access within the built environment.Within Geography, the subject of body size is now gaining momentum with a growing body of research, which focuses on how different body sizes 1 interact with, and experience spaces within the built environment, by which I mean urban spaces. In regard to urban spaces, they are spaces, which are manmade, and thus for economic reasons are created to specifically accommodate for the average person. Hopkins (2008: 2121) suggests that 'understanding how people negotiate everyday spaces, which are planned for specific bodies, is crucial in advancing the knowledges of geographies of body size'. If the size of a space or facility was not a contributing factor to a person's disablement, then there would be no need to ergonomically construct a space or facility for the average sized person. Bodies, which are not of a specific size, experience spaces differently, affecting their use of spaces as they are disabling. A lack of consideration for various body sizes demonstrates that bodily variations are not given equal access to the built environment and that there is scope to show how spaces can be made to accommodate for different body sizes. This paper aims to bring together literature regarding various body sizes, disability in relation to the built environment and Universal Design to show it how it can be a welcome concept within geographies of body size. Universal Design is based on the principle that there is only one population, comprised of individuals representing diverse characteristics and abilities (Iwarsson and Stahl 2003). Universal Design is defined asThe design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design (Mace 1985, in Steinfeld and Maisel 2012: 12).Universal Design emerged from the disability rights movement but with the aim of benefiting the wider population, including children (Steinfeld and Maisel 2012). Thus, under Universal Design, spaces are not only made accommodating for particular disabilities, also for different body sizes and thus creating a more accommodating built environment for a wid...

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