Designing for the Full Range of Human Experience | Open to All

A woman pulls a rolling suitcase up a curb ramp in a city sidewalk.  A box-laden customer opens a shop’s power door with the touch of a hip. Young people around their cell phones, texting. Our environment is full of innovations – curb cuts, power doors, texting — that were designed to support people with disabilities, but benefit all members of our community.

At the same time, our world is still full of places and things designed for a mythical “average user,” not for the majority of us who don’t fit that standard description. A light switch that’s too high, a touch-screen kiosk that requires good vision: these challenges are all around us. One size does not fit all.

Open to All shows how designers make places, objects and experiences to better match the diversity of individual interactions with them.  The exhibit includes projects, installations, videos, and hands-on elements for viewers to explore design’s role in moving beyond “one size fits all.” Open to All seeks to give visitors a visceral understanding of the critical role design plays in creating an environment of inclusivity.

Human-centered design has come a long way in the past 50 years. Designers and Washington residents are advocating for basic accessibility and are thinking about how to go far beyond what our codes and regulations require, putting humans at the center of the design process.  It is time to challenge our ideas of norms and differences, question the obvious, expand our definition of inclusivity, and explore how we can push further.