Abstract:

This classic work has been "accepted internationally as the definitive work on the subject; a textbook for architects and a necessary aid for all who are concerned with the planning and management of buildings used by [people with disabilities]". Goldsmith is considered the founder of modern building design for people with disabilities; his work inspired a significant social revolution in addressing access issues in the built environment. This standard text includes 478 diagrams, and should form a cornerstone of your library's core collection on accessibility. In reality there is no such animal as an average person. We are all unique non-modular individuals, although in public design terms there has to be some kind of common denominator, albeit broader than the notion of the average. Many people who do not conform to this average have been disabled by architects and their clients through arbitrary changes of level, inadequate space standards, unsafe surfaces and so on. It might seem that Selwyn Goldsmith exploded the hegemony of the average when he published Designing for the Disabled in 1963, a design guide that quickly became known as the bible for architects seeking information on access for people with disabilities and has since run to two further editions. But, like subsequent U.K. legislation, it marginalized the disabled as a special problem with provision tacked on as an afterthought, the odd ramp here or disabled WC there.