The application of universal design legislation and standards in Malaysia and Australia

Legislation and standards are alleged to be one of the key solutions for improving accessibility and Universal Design implementation in Malaysia including its implementation in housing design. In response to this concern, the government of Malaysia has taken considerable steps in articulating professional practice obligations as demonstrated in continual improvements in relevant new laws and standards (Malaysian Standard (MS)). The findings from a preliminary study have however evidenced a clear gap between having laws and standards and ensuring their implementation in the construction industry. This paper reviews the issues faced by the existing Malaysian enforcement and practices to Universal Design. The findings emphasise awareness, understanding and practice implications for the legislation and its standards in Malaysia, and problems and assumptions perceived. Findings indicate that there is lack of understanding and awareness of the current legislation and standards in the construction industry, in addition to the insufficiency of comprehensive guidelines to regulate Universal Design in Malaysia.

Universal design practice in Malaysia: Architect's perceptions of its terminology

Universal Design is a concept that embraces and covers issues of accessibility in the built and natural environments. The concept has progressively been introduced into the Malaysian built environment and architecture practice. However, its implementation in Malaysia is still considerably deficient. This paper investigates the contemporary perceptions of Malaysian architects towards the implementation of Universal Design in Malaysian built environment practice with an emphasis on their understanding of the terminology of Universal Design by means of face-to-face interviews. Findings indicate misconceptions towards the terminology of Universal Design exist in Malaysian practice due to a lack of understanding of the terminology that is negating its implementation in built environment practice. © 2014 The authors and IOS Press.

Working with policy and regulatory factors to implement universal design in the built environment: the Australian experience

Built environments that are usable by all provide opportunities for engagement in meaningful occupations. However, enabling them in day to day design processes and practice is problematic for relevant professions. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain greater understanding of the policy and regulatory influences that promote or hinder the uptake of universal design in built environments, to inform better future design. Focus groups or telephone interviews were undertaken with 28 key building industry and disability stakeholders in Australia. Four themes were identified: the difficulties of definition; the push or pull of regulations and policy; the role of formal standards; and, shifting the focus of design thinking. The findings highlight the complexity of working within policy and regulatory contexts when implementing universal design. Occupational therapists working with colleagues from other professions must be aware of these influences, and develop the skills to work with them for successful practice.

Promoting participation through the universal design of built environments: making it happen

Environmental design is a determinant of social inclusion and people’s participation in life roles. Design that does not cater for a diverse range of ages, abilities and cultures restricts people’s access to, and use of, domestic or public premises. Universal design is an approach that acknowledges diversity of populations and encourages designers to create objects and places that are usable by the greatest majority of users. Although there are potential benefits to the widest application of universal design within society, such application is not mandatory within Australia. This paper presents findings from an Australian qualitative study that explored universal design as a means of facilitating greater environmental access for all. The views of experts working within the field of architecture and environmental access were explored regarding factors that restrict or facilitate application of universal design to the design of built environments. Study findings revealed a number of themes relating to factors that may restrain, ‘what’s holding us back?’ and factors that may facilitate application of universal design, ‘making it happen’. These findings have direct relevance to those involved in the planning and design of built environments, policy developers and educators.

Universal design and professional practice obligations in Malaysian domestic housing.

Improving accessibility, usability and safety in the field of Malaysian housing and, more broadly the Malaysian built environment.

Universal housing : Malaysian architect's perception on its implementation

Implementation of Universal Design (UD) in Malaysian built and natural environments is facing some barriers especially in housing. Irrespective of any age and ability, UD is a concept that seeks to positively respond to the needs of access to the physical environment which includes the right to live contentedly in one's house. The aim of this paper is to investigate the perceptions of Malaysian architects toward UD with an emphasis upon housing as a means in identifying the barriers of its implementation. The interview questions focus on perceptions, knowledge and understanding of architects in terms of terminology, legislation and standards, government and professional institute's initiatives and policies on UD. Findings show that among the barriers are confusion in terminology, biased knowledge, and misconceptions of the concept. The ongoing results of the study are presented in the paper together with suggestions for improvements and other implications.

Readiness for interprofessional learning : a cross-faculty comparison between architecture and occupational therapy students

Health and wellbeing includes a need for built environments to accommodate and be inclusive of the broadest range of people and a corresponding need to ensure graduates are ready to engage in this field of interprofessional and inter-industry practise. All too often, interprofessional education in higher education is neglected with a tendency towards educational silos, particularly at a cross-faculty level. This paper reports on an initiative that embedded universal design practice education into the curricula of first year architecture and third year occupational therapy students and evaluated the impact on students’ readiness for interprofessional learning. The Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) was given to students at the beginning and end of the semester during which students participated in a variety of online and face-to-face curriculum initiatives. Results showed that at the beginning of semester, occupational therapy students were significantly more positive about interprofessional learning than their architecture counterparts. Post-results showed that this trend continued but that occupational therapy students became less positive on some items after the interprofessional learning experience. This study provides insights into the interprofessional learning experiences of a group of students who have not previously been studied within the available literature.

Inclusive practices in academia and beyond

This chapter explores a set of principles that underpin ensuring that the learning needs of all students are addressed in next generation learning spaces. With increasingly diverse higher education environments and populations, higher education needs to move from seeing student diversity as problematic and deficit-based, to welcoming, celebrating and recognising diversity for the contributions it makes to enhancing the experience and learning outcomes for all students. The principles of Universal Design for Learning (CAST, 2011) provide a framework for highquality university teaching and learning, as well as guidance on the multiple methods and means by which all students can be engaged and learn in ways that best suit their individual styles and needs. An inclusive approach is important pedagogically and applies to both the physical and virtual environments and spaces inhabited by students. When the design of physical environments does not incorporate universal design principles, the result is that some students can be locked out of participating in campus or university life or, for some, the energy required to participate can be substantial. With the digital education frontier expanding at an exponential rate, there is also a need to ensure that online and virtual environments are accessible for all. This chapter draws on the relevant research and the combined experience of the authors to explore an approach to inclusive practices in higher education next generation learning spaces and beyond. © 2014 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Inclusive pedagogy in Australian universities: a review of current policies and professional development activities

This article reports on activities undertaken by Australian universities to support academic staff to provide inclusive teaching. The findings of two lines of inquiry are reported - a desktop audit of the presence of inclusive teaching or universal design for learning (UDL) in publically available policies and procedures documents, and a survey of the methods adopted to build staff capacity to provide inclusive teaching and learning. Just over a third (34.21%) of Australian universities referred to inclusive teaching or UDL in their policies and procedures. A wide range of current practices in professional development for inclusive teaching was reported, with the most frequent being one-off workshops focussing on accommodating specific groups of students. Improved institutional support through policies, procedures and professional development would enable Australian higher education teachers to provide quality inclusive teaching to all students.

Towards universal accessibility : including users with a disability in the design process

While increased awareness of disability issues has resulted in the development of guidelines for developing accessible software, such guidelines do not guarantee that the end product will be optimal for users with a disability. We present an overview of a user-centred approach to the needs analysis and ultimate design of a disability aware email client (Multimail). We discuss the process we used to work with participants in developing the software and reflect on the benefits and challenges of the process.