The many meanings of accessibility
Paraplegia News, Oct, 2009 by Frank Menendez
One of the newest additions to Gallaudet University, in Washington D.C., is the James Lee Sorenson Language and Communications Center (October 2008). The university, founded in 1864, has had as its unique mission to provide a bilingual, academically challenging environment as well as professional college degrees for people who are deaf or have hearing impairments. Accessibility has been an evolving core requirement for its facilities, with this recent project continuing to address the multiple needs of this diverse student and faculty community.
The Sorenson Center’s design, by the Washington, D.C., office of Smith Group Architects, provides seamless accessibility from exterior to interior, with multiple at-grade entrances. The building forms part of an existing campus circulation pattern, with its various entry points aligned with those existing points of approach.
Design Factors
A primary requirement addressed by the architects was the quality of the interior spaces as they would affect the hearing-, mobility,-and sight-impaired population. Sound attenuation, background reverberation (reflected sounds from the walls and floor surfaces), clear paths for circulation, and light as a means of orientation became important design factors. An equal distribution of circulation is evident as you enter the building, with the elevators, ramps, and stairs all prominent and accessible to the various types of users.
The central organizing atrium, meant as a point of orientation as well as gathering, provides many opportunities for activities typical to an academic building. The upper floors all overlook this central space and can participate in this larger dialog. Sign-language communication can easily take place between individuals at the various levels overlooking this space. Even users of the glass-walled elevator cabs can become a part of this larger community, with direct visual access to the atrium.
The glass railings provided at all appropriately-sized upper terraces allow wheelchair users comfortable sightlines into and across this area. These transparent railings also help distribute the natural light coming through the various clearstories [also known as clerestories-raised constructions on roofs having windows or slits for admitting light or air] and window walls, dispersing it into adjacent spaces that open on to these interior terraces and atrium.
As in all modern collegiate facilities, maximum flexibility of use was a requirement. In a building geared to serve this particular population, this is an even more critical requirement.
All classrooms are flat-floored and sized for optimal acoustic performance. Direct and indirect lighting, filtered exterior light, and adjustable window shading all help provide an adjustable environment for students with various degrees of sight impairment.
Movable modular furniture allows different classroom arrangements, and flat-floored classrooms provide maximum accessibility for wheelchair users
dc architect
Jul 29, 2010
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