1,720,997 research outputs found
Preface [Transforming our World through Universal Design for Human Development]
No full textAn environment, or any building product or service in it, should ideally be designed to meet the needs of all those who wish to use it. Universal Design is the design and composition of environments, products, and services so that they can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people, regardless of their age, size, ability or disability. It creates products, services and environments that meet people’s needs. In short, Universal Design is good design.
This book presents the proceedings of UD2022, the 6th International Conference on Universal Design, held from 7 - 9 September 2022 in Brescia, Italy. The conference is targeted at professionals and academics interested in the theme of universal design as related to the built environment and the wellbeing of users, but also covers mobility and urban environments, knowledge, and information transfer, bringing together research knowledge and best practice from all over the world. The book contains 72 papers from 13 countries, grouped into 8 sections and covering topics including the design of inclusive natural environments and urban spaces, communities, neighborhoods and cities; housing; healthcare; mobility and transport systems; and universally-designed learning environments, work places, cultural and recreational spaces. One section is devoted to universal design and cultural heritage, which had a particular focus at this edition of the conference.
The book reflects the professional and disciplinary diversity represented in the UD movement, and will be of interest to all those whose work involves inclusive design
Towards a More Inclusive Learning Environment: The Importance of Providing Captions That Are Suited to Learners' Language Proficiency in the UDL Classroom
Full text linkCaptions have been found to benefit diverse learners, supporting comprehension, memory for content, vocabulary acquisition, and literacy. Captions may, thus, be one feature of universally designed learning (UDL) environments [1, 4]. The primary aim of this study was to examine whether captions are always useful, or whether their utility depends on individual differences, specifically proficiency in the language of the audio. To study this, we presented non-native speakers of English with an audio-visual recording of an unscripted seminar-style lesson in English retrieved from a University website. We assessed English language proficiency with an objective test. To test comprehension, we administered a ten-item comprehension test on the content of the lecture. Our secondary aim was to compare the effects of different types of captions on viewer comprehension. We, therefore, created three viewing conditions: video with no captions (NC), video with premade captions (downloaded from the university website) (UC) and video with automatically generated captions (AC). Our results showed an overall strong effect of proficiency on lecture comprehension, as expected. Interestingly, we also found that whether captions helped or not depended on proficiency and caption type. The captions provided by the University website benefited our learners only if their English language proficiency was high enough. When their proficiency was lower, however, the captions provided by the university were detrimental and performance was worse than having no captions. For the lower proficiency levels, automatic captions (AC) provided the best advantage. We attribute this finding to pre-existing characteristics of the captions provided by the university website. Taken together, these findings caution institutions with a commitment to UDL against thinking that one type of caption suits all. The study highlights the need for testing captioning systems with diverse learners, under different conditions, to better understand what factors are beneficial for whom and when
The Role and Implication of UD to Foster Inclusion in Built Environments
Full text linkThe level of inclusion of all its members in the complex of community activities is a fundamental indicator of the progress of a society that wants to be defined as civil and there is a rising awareness about the evidence that diversity and inclusion are linked to positive outcomes. The Universal Design approach is increasingly recognized as the one that helps to shape environments - in terms of physical and virtual environments, as well as buildings, goods and services - so that it can be accessed, understood, and used to the greatest extent possible by all people, regardless of their diversity. Thus, making a more inclusive society for all. This short essay summarizes some reflections resulting from studies, research and field practices reported by literature, and also experienced by the author in her training as a researcher and university professor. Attention is focused in particular on some critical issues and implications inherent in the practical application of UD principles, as well as on the importance of its multidisciplinary dimension, which also entails a different attitude towards the training of professionals
Building Accessible Cities: A Reflection Through Time, Towards Future Perspectives
No full textToday, against the impacts of aging population and the increase in social unbalances and demands, the call to make European cities more inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable puts the construction of equally distributed well-being conditions at the core of urban regeneration processes. From this perspective, accessibility to city spaces plays a significant role when understood as a right to citizenship, and as a crucial agent of socialisation. This chapter investigates accessibility as a set of spatial conditions allowing people (regardless of their age, gender, health, wealth and social status) to autonomously and sustainably move every day between their houses, public spaces and equipment. The assumption is that taking accessibility as a key attribute of cities helps conceptualise their spatial quality as a “performance feature” to be defined in relation to how individuals concretely act in places, according to their different bodies, needs, perceptions, lifestyles and co-existence habits. By recalling some past and present planning and design theories and practices, different physical and social dimensions of accessibility are questioned. The aim is to show the need to address urban regeneration towards the cities’ transformation into more “place and people sensitive”, inclusive and “proactive” environments
ICT for All: Where Do We Stand?
Full text linkAlthough its importance is undeniable, designing in a more inclusive way
is not yet fully adopted in the field of design and planning, whose reference
continues to be the standard man. An approach which not only excludes people with
disabilities, but also other categories that diverge from the physical and cognitive
characteristics of the standard human model, such as women, the elderly, and
children. This problem affects different contexts and can be observed especially in
the area of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), which are often
designed without taking into account the peculiarities that distinguish these
categories of users. Referring to the categories affected by the digital divide, the
article reflects on the need to promote specific methodologies, such as Universal
Design and User-centered Design, so that attitudinal and psychological issues
related to different categories of users are considered
Universal Design and Interoperable Digital Platforms Between Conservation and New Fruition Opportunities. The Case Study of Arianna’s Domus in Pompeii
No full textThe paper aims to examine the last results of experimental and interdisciplinary research, started in the archaeological area in Pompeii by the “Federico II” University in 2010, on the enlarged fruition in Pompeii. After Covid-19 pandemic is necessary to rethink the use of the archaeological site considering the need put in place by the health emergency, combining instances of a perception of the archaeological heritage in safety with those of a direct and indirect experience, rationalized and increased thanks to the Universal Design and the use of new interoperable technologies. The increase of knowledge, the survey, and the digitalization of the acquisition processes, by developing optimized methodologies for integrated surveying and modeling for the Heritage Building Information Modeling (H-BIM) and for the archiving and management of data relating to the
heritage, facilitate the sharing of cognitive elements starting from new methodologies and processes of knowledge. The searches, in line with the themes of the Universal Design and thanks to an interoperable web-based platform, experiment technological devices for the accessibility in relationship with the changed needs of cultural fruition due to the pandemic. A special focus analyse on how the conscious use of new technologies may be the key to understand the material and immaterial traces of the case study: Arianna’s domus, in the Regio VII, Insula IV
La narrativa della violenza: uno studio corpus-based sulla rappresentazione della violenza di genere nei media italiani.
No full textUn tipo di rappresentazione stigmatizzata del genere “donna” trova esemplificazione in ambito
mediatico, in cui spesso vengono messi in luce episodi di misoginia e violenza.
Problematiche legate a questo tipo di raffigurazione della donna possono trovare strumenti utili di
indagine nella linguistica dei corpora (Cortese, 1999). Quest’ultima consente, infatti, di esplorare su
larga scala fenomeni sociolinguistici e psicologici che si riflettono nelle scelte linguistiche e
comunicative, non solo a livello di individuo ma anche di comunità (Harris, 1952; Firth, 1957;
Tabbert, 2012).Tuttavia, per quanto a nostra conoscenza, un’analisi sistematica delle rappresentazioni della “donna
come vittima” in corpora di linguaggio mediatico italiano non è molto presente in letteratura. Infatti,
è ancora poco diffuso, specialmente nel panorama italiano, l’impiego di strumenti computazionali
negli studi di linguistica di genere (Baker, 2014, Fragaki e Goutsos, 2015, Busso e Vignozzi, 2017,
inter alia).
In questo lavoro, proponiamo i risultati di uno studio pilota sulla rappresentazione lessicale della violenza di genere nelle principali testate giornalistiche e nel linguaggio televisivo della docu-fiction. Le analisi sono state eseguite su un corpus di articoli di cronaca nera, redatto ad hoc e costituito da circa 300.000 parole (WItNECS- Women in Italian Crime Sections). La raccolta comprende sei mesi di articoli, la cui data d’inizio corrisponde al 13/09/16, connotata simbolicamente
dal suicidio di una vittima di revenge porn. I risultati sono stati ottenuti tramite un’analisi lessicale
data-driven condotta con l’ausilio del software Sketch Engine (Kilgarriff et al. 2014).
Successivamente, è stato effettuato uno studio comparativo su un database multimodale (materiale
video accompagnato dalla trascrizione ortografica del parlato) di episodi di Amore Criminale
(stagione 2015-2016), allo scopo di confrontare le rappresentazioni di donna come vittima nel
linguaggio giornalistico con quelle della televisione.
I risultati preliminari indicano tendenze interessanti dal punto di vista semiotico e sociolinguistico. Nonostante le chiare differenze tra i due tipi di medium, emergono similarità sia a livello di scelte lessicali che di espedienti narrativi. Nello specifico, le donne oggetto di violenze sono sempre rappresentate "in relazione" ad un uomo e mai come individui a sé stanti: mogli, figlie, madri. Interessante è soprattutto che questa dimensione relazionale non sia legata solo al perpetratore della
violenza, spesso un familiare, ma caratterizzi le vittime a tutto tondo. La vittima, quindi, viene privata della sua individualità precipua per inserirla in una rete di relazioni familiari che ne rendano la vicenda più universale, e che favoriscano un processo di identificazione e pietà. Inoltre, donne e uomini sono connotati da metafore evocative contrapposte (ad esempio: "luce” vs “buio", "uomini bestia"). In primis, questo indica una certa spettacolarizzazione dei casi di cronaca nera. Inoltre, le frequenti associazioni metaforiche tra uomo e animali feroci sembrerebbero veicolare una visione istintiva e primordiale della violenza maschile.
In conclusione, questo studio, partendo da osservazioni di tipo puramente linguistico, mira a sfiorare tematiche socioculturali sensibili e dinamiche psicologiche sottese alla rappresentazione mediatica della violenza di genere
Towards Universally Designed Communication: Opportunities and Challenges in the Use of Automatic Speech Recognition Systems to Support Access, Understanding and Use of Information in Communicative Settings
Full text linkUnlike physical barriers, communication barriers do not have an easy solution: people speak or sign in different languages and may have wide-ranging proficiency levels in the languages they understand and produce. Universal Design (UD) principles in the domain of language and communication have guided the production of multimodal (audio, visual, written) information. For example, UD guidelines encourage websites to provide information in alternative formats (for example, a video with captions; a sign language version). The same UD for Learning principles apply in the classroom, and instructors are encouraged to prepare content to be presented multimodally, making use of increasingly available technology. In this chapter, I will address some of the opportunities and challenges offered by automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems. These systems have many strengths, and the most evident is the time they employ to convert speech sounds into a written form, faster than the time human transcribers need to perform the same process. These systems also present weaknesses, for example, a higher rate of errors when compared to human-generated transcriptions. It is essential to weigh the strengths and weaknesses of technology when choosing which device(s) to use in a universally designed environment to enhance access to information and communication. It is equally imperative to understand which tools are most appropriate for diverse populations. Therefore, researchers should continue investigating how people process information in a multimodal format, and how technology can be improved based on this knowledge and users’ needs and feedback
Everyone Inside. Transformation of an Inaccessible Heterotopy. The Case of Buoncammino's Prison
No full textThe specific architectural typology of the prison, congenitally
inaccessible to the urban morphological and cultural context in which it sets, as
heterotopia carries in itself physical and cognitive barriers. The day after their
abandonment, as happened for the former prison of Buoncammino in Cagliari, it’s
interesting to understand what new relationships should be put in place to make it
accessible to all of the city users, in both material and immaterial terms
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