Exhibition "Accessibility"
Welcome to the new "Accessibility" exhibition in the HIL building on the H?nggerberg campus!
To ensure that the exhibition can be experienced by as many people as possible, we describe the content on display on this website. Do you need further support? Then please contact .
The exhibition is located in the foyer of the HIL building next to the Download ISC H?nggerberg (PDF, 109 KB). At the moment, the entrances to the HIL building are only partially barrier-free. The left door of the main entrance is equipped with a non-compliant ramp (gradient 18%). Alternatively, access via 365体育官网_365体育备用【手机在线】 Info H?nggerberg is possible via a mobile ramp. We apologize for the current situation. The barrier-free conversion of the main entrance HIL will take place in the course of 2025.
Accessibility affects us all: every person is confronted with barriers of varying degrees on a daily basis. The limits imposed on us by our environment vary depending on our physical or cognitive condition. An accident, illness or ageing can turn obstacles such as steps, small font sizes or poor room acoustics into insurmountable barriers.
The aim of ETH Zurich is to keep obstacles to a minimum or, ideally, to remove them completely. The university should be designed according to the principle of “Design for all” so that everyone has largely unrestricted access to the buildings and services.
Orientation and Building
Imagine for a moment the following scenario: you decide to go for a walk at the weekend and, while crossing a road, you are hit by a careless driver.
Overnight, you have to rely on a wheelchair to get around. And your environment suddenly needs to be designed so that you can get from A to B in your wheelchair instead of on foot. Ask yourself: would your environment be ready for that change?
ETH is determined to design new buildings according to the principle of “design for all”. Buildings are to be constructed from the outset in such a way that they can, ideally, be used by everyone – regardless of whether they are on crutches, pushing a buggy, using a cane, towing a heavy suitcase or in a wheelchair.
For example, instead of building a staircase and an additional stair lift, the policy now is to build a ramp at the outset. What other “design for all” elements can you think of?
“Design for all”"Design for all" is also known as "universal design".
Many ETH members and visitors are familiar with the situation: you are in a building for the first time looking for a course, your studies have just started and everything is new, or the next session is taking place somewhere in an unfamiliar room. But how do you get to your destination as quickly as possible?
For all those who have already had to face this challenge or will have to in the future, there is digital support via the ETH app. Using a new map and the “PolyMaps” navigation function, routes within and between ETH buildings can be displayed in a similar way to Google Maps. If desired, the routes can be barrier-free, i.e. without stairs or steps.
ETH Zurich has a great many buildings, and it is estimated that it will take 15 to 20 years to make them all fully accessible. At present, many buildings and rooms are only partially accessible. To complicate matters, some of the old buildings, such as the main building, designed by Gottfried Semper, are listed. We need to find a mutually acceptable compromise between ensuring accessibility and preserving historic buildings.
ETH Zurich's new signage, i.e. the directions in buildings, is also designed to be barrier-free: Thanks to a strong contrast in black and white, the signs are easy to read, and room labels can be felt thanks to profile and Braille lettering. The signage points the way to the destination and also shows barrier-free access to buildings and directions via ramps or lifts.
“Barrier-free”In 2025, the topic was renamed at ETH to the new term “Accessibility”.
Organize events
New symbols indicate the accessibility of events. In ETH Zurich's calendar of events, you can filter which events are accessible and how.
Your department is hosting an interesting panel discussion, but you are deaf? The Executive Board has organised a buffet with bar tables, but you use a wheelchair?
A huge number of events take place at ETH Zurich every year. To ensure that everyone can participate fully, it is vital to choose solutions that are as accessible as possible: rooms that can also be reached by wheelchair, for example, and acoustic systems or sign language interpreting for Deaf attendees.
The University has already purchased barrier-free registration desks so that people in wheelchairs can be welcomed at eye level.
Safety
It is not just “built” obstacles that make it difficult for people with restricted mobility or impaired vision, for example, to navigate their way through the building. Movable obstructions also present difficulties: ramps blocked by furniture, corridors blocked with boxes or illegally locked fire doors can become trip hazards or create dangerous dead ends.
Inspections are therefore carried out every four weeks in high-traffic buildings and every eight weeks in buildings that are less frequented. Movable obstacles are removed and the way is cleared.
Training in barrier-free evacuation is provided in safety courses run by the Safety, Security, Health and Environment department. Evacuation sheets are used to transport people who are unable to leave a building quickly enough on their own, e.g. people who have difficulty walking or are pregnant.
In the event of danger, it must be clear how everyone can be alerted and evacuated. For example, if a person is deaf, your alarm needs to be more than just audible – it needs to attract attention visually too, for example with a flashing light. It is also vital to ensure that people with reduced mobility are able to leave the building in good time.
“Zug?nglichkeit”The German translation of “Accessibility” is becoming increasingly popular.
Learning, Teaching and Communicating
Seven comics vividly and colorfully illustrate how teaching - both teaching materials and courses - can be made accessible and barrier-free.
How should digital content be structured using subheadings? What colors and contrast are recommended for graphics or diagrams? How are meaningful and informative alternative texts, i.e. descriptions of images or photos, written?
People who have impaired vision can have content read aloud to them by a screen reader. The content must be available in digital form and formatted in an accessible way. However, barriers are often unwittingly built into websites, PDF files, presentations, images or videos: for example, if a photo does not have any alt text (i.e. a short description of the image), if a video does not have subtitles or if the navigational aids are missing in a PDF file, the content will be inaccessible to people with visual or hearing impairments.
In order to reach everyone in the future, both Corporate Communications and the Educational Development and Technology department have begun to offer regular courses on topics such as “Digital Accessibility” and “Creating accessible PDFs”.
Experience
“Inclusion”Teaching, researching and working together at ETH Zurich also means allowing all people to participate and taking their needs into account wherever possible.
How do I find the seminar room if I have very limited vision?
How do I negotiate the ramps and cobblestones at HPH in a wheelchair?
And how does it feel in general to navigate your way around ETH if you have a disability?
Regular awareness-raising workshops entitled “A Change of Perspective” provide answers to these questions and offer a series of new experiences.
In a change of perspective, you will gain first-hand experience in a wheelchair, with a long cane and simulation glasses or with impaired hearing, and get an impression of how people with disabilities experience their environment and find their way around it.
Try this little experiment for a few seconds: close your eyes and consider these questions: What do you notice? Do you hear sounds in the background? Can you smell anything?
You have opened your eyes again and are reading this text. Not everyone has that option.
Visual impairment, illnesses or age can lead to a partial or complete loss of vision. Besides glasses, what other resources help people with a visual impairment, and what helps people with a hearing impairment?