As spring enters its annual pep rally beckoning bodies outside into the sunshine and fresh air, homeowners pondering upgrades to their outdoor spaces may want to consider making accessible design enhancements that create a more balanced and robust sensory experience.
Here’s why: Designing for inclusivity is the most successful type of design and the most evergreen, guaranteeing an impactful return on investment for the property long-term, and more importantly for our future selves. Already, organizations are gearing up for the “silver tsunami,” which anticipates an increase of older people in the world in the coming decades, and the involved reverberations around costs for care, well-being, and safety of these populations. According to the World Bank, more than one billion people experience some form of disability, but even with the implementation of ADA protocols, the built environment is still catching up. Reactive design and need for workable solutions will be of profuse concern in the years ahead.
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It’s easy to shrug off the notion that our bodies and abilities may ever become limited. But the best design strategy is one that meets critical needs now while prognosticating about the potentiality of things to come.
Unlike architecture, which is generally static, outside spaces have a flexibility to them that allows for integration of workable design solutions that can also be meaningful and, when approached thoughtfully, can result in something beautiful. “We need spaces that are intergenerational and accessible to those of all abilities,” says Jared Green, senior communications manager at the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). “A feeling of safety is really the baseline for feeling comfortable, but to be truly comfortable there needs to be a sense of welcome and belonging for all.”
Here, landscape designers and accessibility advocates weigh in on the future of inclusive design in private outdoor spaces.
No landscape should be impervious to accessibility
David Godshall, principal at Terremoto, an AD100 landscape architecture firm with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles, says the topic of accessibility is engineered more and more often these days by clients. For one project in Sonoma, the team was tasked with fashioning a safe, stair-less solution for a client’s older parents who experience restricted mobility, taking into account an incline leading to a property atop a hill. Driven by the core belief in working with and not against the landscape, the Terremoto team implemented a decomposed granite walkway that spirals the hill. “We designed a path that took the parents on a longer meandering walkabout—a thoughtful approach as to how to offer a beautiful path for someone in a garden environment.”
Consider very seriously how the space will be used and by whom, says Melody Stein, principal landscape designer at studio VISIT, a creative workshop dedicated to land-based research, design, and practice based in New York City. “What is accessible for a neurodivergent individual would be very different from what is accessible for someone with visual impairment or someone with a specific mobility need.”
Start inside to design your outside
“The exit from the house may be the first and biggest challenge,” says Rosheen Styczinski, owner and principal of New Eden Landscape Architecture in Milwaukee. “The first floor of many homes is elevated with steps. Door sills may have a high weather strip that can trip many walkers and even wheelchairs.” Styczinski says that when stairs are necessary, her team tries to divide it into a series of landings and handrails. For thresholds, “I have asked architects to provide flush doorsills.”
Avoiding trip hazards is critical. Styczinski says they follow ADA guidelines and select material such as concrete, asphalt, and pavers—available in brick, concrete, and stone, among other materials—to provide a smooth and stable surface for wheelchairs, walkers, or anyone with walking difficulties. Consistency with materials underfoot helps users with difficulty seeing or processing contrasts, which is useful when there’s a change between levels in a space.
Substituting wide (about five feet or so), lightly sloping paths for stairs is a popular option in universal design. Experts also recommend adding low-glare and non-slippery ground materials and implementing ample and consistent lighting throughout outdoor spaces.
Providing shade at the home’s exit can block bright sunlight from stunning the eyes. “Senior eyes do not adjust as fast and can be temporarily blinded,” says Styczinksi, who also likes to situate flowering trees and shrubs near entrances and windows or the edge of pathways to elevate the olfactory experience of the outdoor space. “This can stimulate memories and date time for some people.”
Styczinski is also a proponent of planting strategically farther afield in the yard as well and not just next to the house. Such a setup means that residents can watch plants through the seasons from a window, affording visual accessibility to the changing landscape.
Options are optimal
With gardening more popular than ever, adding raised planters and containers creates more access points for individuals to tend their blooms and grow their vegetables. It also optimizes the visual connection to nature. Adding places for respite should also take different forms. For example, the ASLA recommends adding benches and chairs with two armrests, so individuals can more easily lift or push themselves up. Calming, secluded outdoor areas—for instance, a bench under tree cover just off a walking path—can be beneficial for users seeking a space to stifle sensory overload. Alternatively, benches along paths might afford ideal seats for enjoying the outdoors, as well as a stopping off place for anyone wanting to rest.
Design intentionally
Fundamentally, inclusive design schemes should consider all senses, from feeling (movement and mobility) to visual, audio, and olfactory. Approaching them with expertise from a disabled designer assures professional and personal perspective. “I have a very critical eye for accessible versus inaccessible spaces—not only for myself but for other disabled groups—as my work has been in design but also in technical and legal requirements (ADA Standards and CBC-11B),” says Alexa Vaughn, a Deaf landscape designer and accessibility specialist who works to educate landscape architects, field professionals, and academics about the importance of including the disabled community in design ideation.
Vaughn is the founder of the website Design with Disabled People Now, which provides educational tool kits and solutions for modifying landscapes to be more inclusive of the Deaf community, including advice for lighting, shade, furnishings, and more. The standard process needs improvement, Vaughn says. “You can’t design for disabled people without including them directly—we only gain answers for accessible and inclusive design by incorporating their direct feedback, holistically.”
For an outdoor space, Vaughn favors a clear visual corridor and supports the use of mixed-height fixed seating and pedestals like low-rise walls and planter edges, where one can place personal items to free up hands for sign language. However, Vaughn also stresses that specific needs will dictate specific designs.
Because everyone benefits from connecting with nature, easy access to fresh air and sunshine should be possible for all. Intentional design can certainly do its part. “Building inclusive, beautiful, and ecologically positive outdoor spaces is an opportunity to reignite lost relationships between people and the ecosystems we’ve become so disconnected from,” Stein says.
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