A3 diagram

Brief Description:

A3 Model diagram depicting three phases: advocacy, accommodation and accessibility.

Essential Description:

The A3 model demonstrates the progression (over time) of organizations through three phases of interventions (advocacy, accommodation, and accessibility) for individuals with disabilities, with the accessibility phase regarded as the most advanced. The diagram illustrates how three different intervention approaches (advocacy, accommodation, and accessibility) for people with disabilities evolve over time. The first phase, Advocacy, indicates the phase in which awareness is raised about the needs of people with disabilities. In this phase self advocacy or advocacy by others dominates as the primary intervention approach. The second phase, Accommodation, reveals that advocacy begins to shrink and individual accommodation interventions grow in proportion, represented as the primary intervention approach. The third phase, Accessibility, represents the more advanced balance of interventions where less advocacy and individual accommodation is needed, with accessibility represented as the primary intervention approach. The majority of intervention and effort for people with disabilities in this last phase is met through a universal design approach where everyone receives the same intervention.

Detailed Description:

The diagram shows the theoretical relationships of advocacy, accommodation, and accessibility as a function of time (The x-axis is labeled “Transition Over Time”) in a stacked area chart. The intervention approaches of advocacy (in black), accommodation (in gray), and accessibility (white) sum to 100%, depicting the proportional balance of the organization’s approach at any point in time. The y-axis is labeled, “Approaches to meeting the needs of people with disabilities”. The phases are presented as 3 panels divided by a dotted line. The intervention approach of advocacy is represented as the bottom layer across the diagram in black. The intervention approach of accommodation is represented as the middle layer across the diagram in gray. The intervention approach of accessibility is represented as the top layer across the diagram in white. The proportion of each intervention approach increases and / or decreases smoothly across the phases. At a distance, the diagram looks like a rolling wave. The relative sizes of each intervention approach (advocacy, accommodation and accessibility) grows or shrinks across each phase as time moves from left to right. The first panel (phase 1: Advocacy) on the left, is filled with 70% advocacy (black), 15% accommodation (gray), and 15% accessibility (white). The black area of advocacy shrinks, the gray area of accommodation grows, and the white area of accessibility remains the same at the end of phase one / beginning of phase two. The second panel (phase 2: accommodation) in the middle, is filled with 25% advocacy (black), 50% accommodation (gray), and 25% accessibility (white). The black area of advocacy continues to shrink, the gray area of accommodation begins to shrink, and the white area of accessibility grows at the end of phase two / beginning of phase three. The third panel (phase 3: accessibility) on the right, is filled with 15% advocacy (black), 15% accommodation (gray), and 70% accessibility (white).