The building blocks of accessibility

Ok. I admit it.  

I like Lego.  

No, I love Lego.  

I love its meditative qualities when attempting to build a complex model. Can I achieve what the designers in Billund envisaged and meticulously converted in computer aided designs shipped around the world? Is every piece there or will I be frustrated by the absence of one key part on which the whole design depends? That one key part that will make the model useable, functional and accessible. Over the many models I’ve constructed on my own or with my children I can count on one hand how many sets have missed a single element.

If only every designer of a public space or a building took the same approach. Every element is as important as every other including accessibility. Every project, no matter how big or small, in the physical or digital space, is a sum of many parts. If all parts are in place the project lends itself to being useable, functional and accessible.

Who do we need to address to make sure accessibility is not a missing part of the whole design? The designers or architects or planners? Those universities and institutions that trained those designers or architects or planners? Those schools that feed into those universities and institutions?

Maybe we need to go further back to make sure it’s ingrained. Think building blocks and what you can build upon.

To engage with my children I would often get myself involved in their games of choice. Yes, plenty of Lego from when they were old enough not to devour it.

One day I was introduced to Minecraft, Lego for the digital age. As a lifelong fan of Lego I could see the great appeal to apply the same principles used when approaching a Lego model.  

There is no concept of access in Minecraft: everything is constructed based on a specific pixel array.  Houses can be built. Villages can be built.  Countries can be built. The limit is your imagination. In fact the whole country of Denmark was recreated in a Minecraft environment. Everything is based on a pixelated series of building blocks. However there is always one great, glaring issue with any Minecraft design: they are designed for fully ambulant virtual characters. There is no character with difficulties with walking or using a wheelchair or other mobility aid.

So one day when playing with my children I couldn’t help myself.

“Kids, I love that 9 storey castle you just built with the 27 individual staircases.”

“Cool isn’t it Dad?”

“But what if your character was using a wheelchair to get around? How can you make it more accessible?”

There was a stunned silence. Then the inventiveness and creativity of childhood took hold. Thirty minutes later after referencing a series of Minecraft manuals my children came up with a series of solutions. Quietly and meticulously added to the castle, up the sides of the staircases, were a series of mine carts on Redstone powered mine cart tracks: the Minecraft equivalent of a stair lift. What’s more, with even more great attention to detail, were Redstone powered lifts between every floor providing full and equitable access to every Minecraft character that chose to visit. No buttons to press either: all the lifts were set up as proximity sensor activated.

Suffice to say I’m proud of my children.

It showed me accessibility starts with building with the right blocks. Build with the right blocks and you’ll get the right solution that useable, functional and accessible for all.

So to all those designers, architects and planners or those aspiring to be: take a step back. Take a look at your proposals in a different light and consider all the elements, all the blocks you need to make a useable, functional and accessible design.

Go play Minecraft.

Go play with Lego.

I love Lego.