In order to get closer to a "universal design," governments, local and federal, should create a board of individuals that are either personally affected or have a family member that is affected by a condition that inhibits daily life. There should be a wide variance in the conditions and age groups represented. The board members could meet 3 times a year to discuss and evaluate the ways in which their town/city is accommodating to the impaired. They could also brainstorm for improvements and petition or fundraise for these improvements to be made.

Because of the abundance and variations of disabilities that inhabit everyday life, I agree with Jonathan Hsy in the sense that I do not consider a "universal design" to be an attainable goal. Rather, it is a concept such as peace or fairness that should be considered and wanted in order to better society. If everyone stopped striving for peace, fairness, or perfection because it is essentially impossible, the world would begin to decline exponentially. Therefore, even though a "universal design" is impossible, the concept will lead to a better society.

Since disability is, in some way or another, experienced by everyone, why is it not taken into consideration more often? I am confident that most people either have or know others that have a life altering condition. Therefore, it would make since that collectively the community could accommodate to those individuals. With this in mind, I do not think that the issue arises from a lack of knowledge or experience. I believe that funding, laziness, forgetfulness, or some combination of the three is to blame.

I can attest to this statement because by having a blind mother, I am more aware of the obstacles in a setting that might inhibit her from coexisting easily. However, if I did not have a visually impaired mother I don't believe I would have this same awareness.

http://webaim.org/articles/motor/motordisabilities

While reading this article I began to consider all the different disabilities that affect motor skills alone. The website linked above lists and describes a multitude of motor skill related disabilities such as cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy. It also includes injuries such as spinal chord damage or limb loss. This source helped me to understand the vast number of ways in which someone can be disabled. It also illustrated the high probability of attaining one of these injuries or conditions.

The idea that everyone's body will ultimately begin to fail in one way or another is also highlighted in "Universal Design and Its Discontents." Every day people are getting into accidents, contracting illnesses, and simply aging. These events often times lead to permanent disabilities. Although disability is essentially inevitable, most don't consider it until reality strikes. With this in mind, able bodied citizens should take every opportunity to assist the disabled because one day, the once able will also need assistance.

As technology advances, could it one day be possible to have an entirely universal design of a given space or will the ever growing amount and combination of disabilities and inherent differences, as mentioned in "Universal Design and Its Discontents," perpetuate the exclusion of "abnormal" individuals?

Often times, able bodied individuals overlook the challenges that disabled individuals face in an everyday setting. In the article "Universal Design and Its Discontents," Jonathan Hsy admits that he had never considered how difficult it could be to navigate a web page that was designed with only the non-disabled in mind until he encountered a web journal created for the deaf. He had trouble making use of the information because it was mostly in the form of ASL video clips and had little to no english subtitling.

In the article, “Universal Design and its Discontents,” Rick Godden and Jonathan Hsy assert that no internet platform will ever be accessible to every single individual. Accommodating to a multitude of different impairments, languages, and mediums all in one “universal design” has proven to be quite a tall order and ranks among the tangibility of a unicorn or earthly utopia. This inherent complication persists in spaces, cyber and physical, especially when the creators of these spaces don’t always take possible restraints into consideration. That being said, content creators should always attempt to make their content as user-friendly as possible. Inger Marie Lid also critiques the accessibility of our society for disabled people in the article “Implementing Universal Design in a Norwegian Context: Balancing Core Values and Practical Priorities.” Aside from the accessibility of the internet to the visually and aurally impaired, Lid focuses on the accommodations of those who are wheelchair bound or crippled in urban settings. She argues that a “universal design” of the city is imperative to the social justice of disabled citizens and is more easily attainable with considerate city planning.

Lid, Inger Marie. “Implementing Universal Design in a Norwegian Context: Balancing Core Values and Practical Priorities.” Disability Studies Quarterly 36.2 (2016): n. pag. via.hypothes.is. Web. 26 Mar. 2017.

Being the child of a blind parent, I understand the struggle faced by those with disabilities in the urban setting. My mother has been blind since she was 27, which means she has been unable to provide transportation for herself. My family always had to take this into consideration when moving to a new city. Accommodations such as audio equipped pedestrian signals and ample public transportation are essential in enabling her to interact with an urban environment safely and effectively. Without these features, my mother would not be able to function normally. She would be invisible.