On Thursday, Nov. 29, students in two Introduction to Environmental Design classes at the University of Colorado at Boulder will find wheelchairs to sit in instead of their usual desks. The class instructor will give each student a specific task to accomplish in a wheelchair during the class and will assign the students to design a bus stop for the disabled.
The two classes will meet from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. and from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in room 114 of the Environmental Design Building. Each of the classes has about 20 students, and wheelchairs will be provided to as many of the students as possible. The class is the first design studio taken by undergraduate students in the CU-Boulder College of Architecture and Planning.
The two Nov. 29 classes will be led by CU-Boulder environmental design instructor Shawn Edmonds. Reporters are welcome to observe.
Among the tasks to be assigned to the students in wheelchairs will be to check out a book from Norlin Library, ride a bus, visit a retail outlet on the Hill, find items in the CU Book Store or visit specific locations in Fiske Planetarium, the Student Recreation Center, Muenzinger Psychology and Macky Auditorium. At each location where they perform a task, the students also will be asked to use a bathroom.
Students will take photographs and keep 聯Wheelchair Diaries聰 to document their experiences. The exercise is intended to sensitize students to design issues for the disabled.
Edmonds is a doctoral student in the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado Denver and a research assistant in CU聮s Children, Youth and Environments Center for Research and Design.
For more information call Edmonds at (720) 883-4568 or call Peter Caughey in the CU-Boulder Office of News Services at (303) 492-4007.