As early as next September, after a two-year grace period, all provisions of the Law on Ensuring Accessibility for Persons with Special Needs, passed in July 2019, will take effect. The topic of this law is often discussed in public finance sector talks, but it is too slow to start talking about it in the architectural community. Why is it so important for designers?
What is the law on ensuring accessibility about?
The provisions of the law do not directly apply to architects, and the changes it introduces to the technical conditions to which buildings and their location should conform are practically cosmetic. However, its impact on the construction industry is extremely significant. Starting next September, all contracts with the public finance sector, as well as public procurement, will have to include accessibility requirements.
Accessibility on the principles of universal design
Every school, university, public health facility, state cultural institution that we design will have to have accessibility, if possible, on the principles of universal design. And this accessibility does not end with meeting the requirements set by the technical conditions. Moving around the building, access to all rooms, with the exception of technical ones, and working in the designed facilities is to be possible for most social groups, and without additional adaptations or procedures. Improvements such as stairlifts, will be allowed only where there is no chance of solutions, allowing people with mobility disabilities to move around the facility independently. This situation will also apply to architectural competitions that will result in a contract with an entity with financial or supervisory ties to the public finance sector.
Accessibility certification vs. design
In addition, Accessibility Certification will be introduced for private entrepreneurs and non-governmental organizations that are not financially or supervisoryly tied to public entities. This probably means that soon obtaining such a certification will be as common as obtaining environmental certifications (BREEAM, LEED) and will become part of the requirements of retail chains, office buildings or hotels.
Accessibility design - who should be considered?
It is important to keep in mind that accessibility design applies to people with limited mobility, as well as those who are blind and visually impaired, deaf and hearing impaired, andas well as people with intellectual disabilities or the autism spectrum, parents with children, the elderly, people of unusual height, and foreigners who do not understand Polish. Each of these groups, as well as the others covered by the Act, has very specific requirements, and as of next September, we architects cannot afford not to know about them.
As IARP architect Katarzyna Cimoch urges:
Although next September seems far away, the issues to assimilate are many. The slowdown in the market seems like the perfect time to tackle them, so I encourage you to start learning about the needs of people who require special accommodations now!
Katarzyna Cimoch - IARP architect, owner of Architerapia, specialist in combating architectural barriers at the Kulawa Warszawa Foundation. Fascinated by the impact of space organization on relationships in small communities (families, schools, workplaces) and on the accumulation and effective use of an individual's resources. She promotes the idea of providing equal access in order to realize the potential of the whole society.
elaborated. ed.
based on materials from Katarzyna Cimoch
