After touring Carpenter Hall and Daggy Hall here at Washington State University through the perception of daily life in a wheel chair I quickly realized that most general designs in both buildings were not universally designed for wheel chair accesses. I learned that even the bathroom stall which is meant to be designed to be wheel chair accessible is truly anything but it, as I watched my partner in this project struggle to get turned around once she had entered the stall, as well as turn around again to exit it.On top of the bad stall design, the mirror in both bathrooms was at a height where a person in a wheel chair isn't able to see themselves. I noticed a commonality in dis-functional design when we visited the coffee shop from a wheel chair perspective. Here I found myself looking up at the counter unable to see the top of the counter, or even reach the tip jar.
After my experience I can definitely sum up both Carpenter Hall and Daggy Hall to not be universally designed, because the environment isn't fit for meeting the appropriate accommodations people with special needs need on a daily basis.
As a society we are hurt if everyone isn't able to use a space, because it limits who and what activities can happen in a space. There is hope for the future though in the sense that new technology is being made. Such as automatic height adjustable wheel chairs, and different fixtures such as grab bars that double as towel racks and appliances that are on a levee to pull up or down to the right height to help people with special needs get to or around different spaces.
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