By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Last year, an audit conducted for Grand Rapids' Downtown Development Authority determined that downtown does not meet basic accessibility guidelines for persons with disabilities. As the City strives to raise awareness about the need for Universal Design in its urban planning, Disability Advocates of Kent County, the region's advocate for disabled citizens, is leading by example.
Universal Design is the design of products, buildings, and exterior spaces for use by everyone regardless of physical abilities. With the help of pro bono office design services provided by Steelcase, DAKC is adding a fully accessible workstation for persons with visual impairments.
"This one station will be fully usable by anyone," said David Bulkowski, the group's executive director.
Several existing workstations are motorized for easy height adjustments from 20 inches to 4 feet to accommodate wheelchairs and persons with limited range of motion.
"Most of our volunteers are wheelchair users," Bulkowski said. "If you line up ten people with wheelchairs, you have ten different sets of needs."
The re-design of the 5,600-square-foot office will create room for four additional workstations, and still maintain easy wheelchair mobility.
A $25,000 Excelerator Grant from AT&T will fund technological upgrades to increase server capacity to accommodate five more computers now, and another dozen in the future.
"It's just great. It's generous. It's just fantastic," Bulkowski said.
The funding will also pay for six new computers. Right now, 75 volunteers and several interns come and go throughout the month. They share two workstations and two computers.
"They're waiting in line," Bulkowski said. "With the additional workspaces, we'll be able to put computers there, and phones, and expand our volunteer opportunities.
"It's about giving people with disabilities an opportunity to work on issues like long-term healthcare, mass transit, and accessibility," he added. "Having that technical support for them to do what they need to do is crucial."
Source: David Bulkowski, Disability Advocates of Kent County
www.disabilityadvocates.us
Deborah Johnson Wood is the Development News Editor for Rapid Growth. She can be reached at [email protected].
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