What's the curb-cut effect?

It's about universal design that benefits all

Photo by Gervyn Louis on Unsplash

In the decade since I was diagnosed with ADHD, I’ve learned so much about disability and have met some of the most avid advocates and allies. Last week I had the good fortune of interviewing Tiffany Yu.

Tiffany, the founder and CEO of Diversability, has a book coming out this fall called “The Anti-Ableist Manifesto: Smashing Stereotypes, Forging Change, and Building a Disability-Inclusive World.” It is the perfect primer for anyone wanting to learn more about effectively and respectfully advocating for people with disabilities.

And though I have gleaned much over the years, Tiffany’s book had me pondering things I’d not really thought much about before — or at least I didn’t have the words to define the issues I knew need addressing on a systematic level.

Case in point: universal or inclusive design. Defined by University of California Berkeley, universal design is “the design of products and environments to be useable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without adaptation or specialized design.” As such, it describes the difference between accommodation (an adaptive afterthought) and accessibility (designed for every-body from the get-go).

It’s well-known in the disability community that accessible design benefits not only the people it is designed for but, as it turns out, is often adopted and appreciated by non-disabled people, becoming ubiquitous in everyday life. This phenomenon is known as the curb-cut effect.

Curb-cuts are ramps that lead from sidewalks onto crosswalks. You may not even notice them as they are standard in most cities these days (as they should be as a matter of law dating back to 1968). But this was not the case a few decades ago. In the early 1970s, before the Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted, wheelchair user Michael Pachovas and a few other advocates performed an act of guerrilla construction adding a crude concrete ramp onto a curb in Berkeley, California.

Photo by Sean Foster on Unsplash

Curb-cuts make streets and sidewalks accessible for people using wheelchairs and other mobility devices. But, lo and behold; people pushing baby strollers, travelers pulling rolling luggage, kids on bicycles all benefit.

And so it goes.

Tiffany writes about several things designed to make the world more accessible for people with disabilities which have become everyday items in many non-disabled people’s lives. Electric toothbrushes? Check. Touch screens? Check. OXO ergonomic kitchen and household devices? Check.

Bendable straws were designed for patients unable sit up to drink (and are a good way to “sip Dom Pérignon” by the way).

Did you know that the typewriter was invented by Italian Pellegrino Turri in 1808? Turri created it for his blind friend, Countess Carolina Fantoni da Fivizzano, so she could still write (though Italian printmaker Francesco Rampazetto created the scrittura tattile in 1575 — a machine that embossed letters on paper and there may have been other similar inventions that predate Turri’s).

When was the last time you asked Siri or Google or Alexa to do something for you? According to ShareAmerica, a U.S. State Department website, the technology began with the invention of the phonograph by Thomas Edison — himself nearly totally deaf (and he likely had ADHD too).

So, the next time you use that fat-handled rubberized vegetable peeler or ask your phone to call a friend, you can thank the inventive work of disabled people and their allies.

Have you ever invented an adaptive device to help you get something done? Let me know about it in the comments. I’d love to hear about it and, you never know, maybe I’ll write about you too.

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