The curb cut effect: How universal design makes things better for everyone

https://uxdesign.cc/the-curb-cut-effect-universal-design-b4e3d7da73f5

”…It all started with the curb cut movement in the revolutionary 60s in Berkeley, California. Ed Roberts, an activist and graduate student at University of California, Berkeley, was the leader of this revolution. When Roberts was young, he became sick with polio which left him paralyzed from the neck down. The only part of his body he could move were two fingers on his left hand. Though it was difficult, he was determined to go to school and make a difference. He went to class with the help of an attendant pushing his wheelchair and had a classmate make carbon copies of their notes. Roberts’s story was an anomaly for the time, and he soon began making headlines. Shortly after Roberts started at Berkeley, quite a few other disabled students arrived as well. Together, they began a dialogue regarding the civil rights of disabled peoples, such as the right to be included in public life with something as simple as ease of travel through the streets…”