Universal Design
What have you seen at others' farms and how do you think of universal design at your own home?
STRATEGIES
We have family (and a house to stay!) to visit in Maui so that's usually our annual vacation. One of my favorite places to visit in Maui is Kula County Farms (and other farms in the Kula area). They have u-pick strawberries and a good selection in their farmstand. Since I've had a kid 2 or under for the past many years we haven't picked anything ourselves in a while (it's too stressful to me trying to make sure they don't pick the wrong ones or step in the wrong place in someone else's garden).
Since we recently returned from there it has me thinking....has anyone visited farms that were more accessible to them than others? Whether a homesteader / hobby farmer or commercial farmer.
I've been on some fairly accessible farms to that particular injured farmer but not universally designed.
If you haven't heard of universal design, it's a pretty neat concept. Instead of designing something for the "average" user (whoever they decide their target sample is, anyway), something should be designed to try to include as many people as possible. Garden tools are a good example of this. My 6' husband can pick up most garden tools and find them to be a good fit but my 5'2" self....not so much. Of course not everything can be adjustable or gets too expensive to be practical, etc. but it's at least something that should be thought about.
On my homestead level garden I've mostly thought of my family's accessibility to it but when my barely ambulatory aunt came over she could only view our garden from the car. I wouldn't think of meeting a friend in a wheelchair at my house because it would be very limiting. If I'd thought about making it more accessible in my design would I be thanking myself in 20-30 years? Would I be happier about my wheelbarrow and wagon and stroller maneuverability? I think so. In the moment we placed our garden beds too close because we had a truckload of dirt to unload and that was was the space my husband had time to prep. I loved the harvest we got from that space from that summer and will get this summer...but should I have just done half the harvest last year and prepped the other beds last fall? Only time will tell. There's not really a downside to making it more accessible except perhaps some extra resources.
What have you run into accessibility-wise at others' farms? What do you consider in your own home?