The Cooper-Hewitt?s latest exhibition clarifies why accessible design is not a privilege, but a right They don?t call it a radio, because who has a radio anymore" Yet the brick-like shape; the round, cloth-covered speaker; and the two oversized controls say ?radio? to anyone born in the first half of the 20th century.
Even if you have dementia, you can see the box on a countertop, say, and intuitively know that it plays music. And if you touch the box, you?ll find only two possible actions: Press the oblong button (nothing happens) or lift the lid on top.
Voila! Music.
The Simple Music Player (2014), designed by Lyndon Owen, Maurice Thompson, and Bruce Barnet, comes pre-loaded with big-band songs because they?re a) free and b) popular with the audience for which the player was designed. But the player can be loaded with 3,500 minutes of anything?podcasts, audiobooks, classical, pop, rap?through a USB port hidden on the back. Lift the lid, music plays. Drop the lid, music stops. ?I like listening to Pandora,? says Barnet, ?and I keep it on because I want to know what the next song will be. It?s the opposite when you get older. You want structure. You want to know what happens next.? So the music starts exactly where it left off, always in the same order. (The button is to skip a song.)
Meeting the requirements is not the same thing as being accessible?much less welcoming?to all.
If you have dementia, Alzheimer?s, memory loss, or autism, music can relax you, im...