Norwegian schools are not adequately accessible to all their users

It is an established political aim in Norway that all children should be able to attend their local school. This means that universal design in primary and lower secondary schools must be prioritised. 

Municipalities are therefore encouraged to map universal design in their schools. With an overview, they can better plan, budget, and carry out necessary improvements.

Researchers from SINTEF have now investigated how municipalities carry out this mapping work in their schools.

“We identified those who are involved, whether the assessments resulted in upgrades, and which user groups were addressed by any resultant measures,” says researcher Karine Denizou at SINTEF.

Most responses came from small municipalities

An electronic questionnaire was sent to a total of 356 municipalities in Norway. 116 municipalities responded. 91 of the municipalities completed the questionnaire. The majority of respondents were small municipalities.

A quarter of the municipalities participate in the nationwide municipal Network for Universal Design. These could be expected to exhibit higher levels of awareness of universal design than the others.

“Our survey sample contained municipalities of different sizes and exhibited good geographical distribution. All of the Norwegian counties were represented. Even though the response percentage was low, the material was sufficient to support an analysis,” says Denizou. 

Additionally, interviews were conducted in four municipalities of different sizes.

Only when the need is urgent

Only a third of the municipalities report that they assess their schools. 27 per cent report that they have actually conducted mapping.

“Some make assessments only when a pupil with special needs starts at a given school. Assessments of universal design are regarded as unnecessary in new schools that have been built in compliance with requirements governing universal design in public access buildings,” says Denizou.

Demand new regulations

“We have no choice but to repeat the submissions we have made on a regular basis ever since the Disability Discrimination Act came into force in 2009,” says Tove Linnea Brandvik, the general-secretary of the Norwegian Association for the Disabled.

The Act stipulates that all buildings intended for public access must offer universal design.

“In order to achieve this, statutory regulations must be drawn up that impose deadlines as to when given types of buildings must comply with the stipulated requirements,” says Brandvik. 

She adds that there needs to be clear requirements for how this should be achieved and what criteria are used.

Brandvik believes that all children’s right to attend their local school cannot be fulfilled in practice until school buildings meet the requirement for universal design. 

“Now that we see the municipalities failing both to document or implement existing requirements, the government must step in to ensure that the regulations needed by the municipalities to carry out their obligations are rapidly put in place,” she says.

She believes that different practices for whether the status is checked in schools, different reporting systems, and different criteria being used, all strengthen the need for a regulation.

Brandvik goes on to emphasise that involvement of the statutory municipal committees for the disabled is considered essential as part of the work that has to be carried out.

No compatible digital tools

Norwegian municipalities use a so-called FDV system, which is an IT system for property management that provides an overview of everything required for operation and maintenance. FDV stands for digital management, operations, and maintenance. 

This is a system that is often used to map universal design, but other tools are also used. 

Several municipalities believe they lack a good tool for fieldwork, follow-up, and reporting. Much of it concerns the fact that the tools are not compatible with the municipality's digital FDV system.

“This serves to highlight an obstacle both to future monitoring and action to implement universal design. It's a problem that we should be addressing,” says Denizou.

Accessibility is given most weight

Not surprisingly, municipal assessments give most weight to the needs of users with mobility issues. Over 90 per cent of municipalities stated that their assessments focus primarily on wheelchair users and others with reduced mobility. 

People with a visual impairments are reported to be addressed in 80 per cent of the municipalities.

The municipalities surveyed consider that it will be possible, once all identified shortcomings have been remedied, to achieve non-discriminatory use of their schools by wheelchair users (67 per cent), other people with reduced mobility (60 per cent), people with a visual impairment (54 per cent), and people with a hearing impairment (44 per cent).

Only 19 per cent of the municipalities have made assessments of their outdoor school spaces using the app supplied by the Norwegian Mapping Authority.

Minorities get squeezed out

Non-Norwegian-speaking children, and those with behavioural issues on the autism spectrum, are rarely considered to achieve non-discriminatory utilisation of their schools. Only 18 per cent respond that the interests of these groups are given consideration.

“This correlates well with the fact that the needs of these children are inadequately recognised and recorded, and explains why these needs are not incorporated in existing assessment criteria,” says Denizou.

These groups are not addressed in the Norwegian statutory building regulations (TEK17) in the same way as, for example, wheelchair users or people with visual impairments.

Tight budgets stand in the way

A whole 79 per cent cite tight budgets as an obstacle to the implementation of relevant measures.

Other barriers include a general lack of both expertise and commitment. An additional reason for the postponement of measures may be uncertainty regarding the selection of effective solutions.

“Nevertheless, municipalities implement a number of measures to promote universal design in connection with maintenance, such as the installation of sun screens, automatic door openers and alternatives to staircases,” says Denizou.

Gaps in expertise create chaos

The questionnaire and interviews revealed that expertise in universal design varies greatly between municipalities. This area is organised in different ways.

Only very few municipalities have their own resource team or an individual dedicated to universal design.

“We found that resource persons dedicated to universal design have an important role in terms of disseminating information within a municipality, but that it is equally important that they can obtain support from a group of specialists. Such groups offer the space necessary for discussion, and are a crucial precondition for universal design,” she says.

Denizou argues that it should be a stated objective that more municipalities raise the issue among different sectors.

User experience should be better exploited

There is little to indicate that the municipalities operate with systems that adequately capture and categorise any input provided by users.

“Users’ experiences of their schools and outdoor spaces offer useful information, and we should be systematically seeking user input. This input should be brought to the attention of the departments responsible for operations and maintenance, as well as to higher authorities within the municipalities,” says Denizou.

She argues that, in this way, it will be possible to ensure that necessary measures can be incorporated into municipal budgets.

Researchers’ recommendations

The researchers have several recommendations for mapping universal design. This can contribute to measures being implemented in schools in the future:

• Evaluate and record the process that has resulted in exemplary upgrades related to universal design.
• Collect examples of specific proposals for solutions to everyday problems.
• Develop a set of assessment criteria that extend beyond the scope of the TEK17 regulations, including criteria that take into account children with diverse cognitive difficulties.
• Establish procedures for the selection of assessment advisers, such as a template containing requirement specifications that can be requested by the municipalities.
• Review existing assessment process guidelines and expand these to include items such as methods for gathering user experiences.

The SINTEF report concludes that current objectives relating to inclusivity and participation, as well as pupils’ universal entitlement to attend their local schools, must be followed up. 

This can be achieved by introducing requirements or financial incentives to encourage municipalities to prioritise universal design in existing schools.

This study was funded by the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs.

Reference:

Denizou et al. Universell utforming i grunnskolen. Kartlegging og praksis i norske kommuner (Universal design in schools. Assessment and practice in Norwegian municipalities), SINTEF Akademisk forlag, 2024.

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Read the Norwegian version of this article on forskning.no

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