CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

Barbara Bailey, co-founder and resident of Prairie Hill, explained the appeal of the co-housing developent.

“We have meals once a week cooked by volunteer cooks. Residents pay five dollars to cover the cost and it puts on a meal for the whole community. We call it Tasty Tuesday,” said Bailey.

“Vegetables are brought down from the garden and prepared for the meals.

“People come together in the common house. We have morning coffee, movie nights, game nights, even beer brewing.”

The development is structured as a condominium.

Bailey dubbed the governing structure as a “sociocracy—no one head person, but committees in charge of things.”

Bailey believes Universal Design is a must for intergenerational living and co-housing.

“Most units have roll-in showers, accessible baths, light switches accessible to people in wheelchairs,” she said.

“We hired an architect very versed in the ADA and inclusion.

You get through the grounds without using steps and the two-story community building has an elevator.”

 

 

CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

In Iowa City, Iowa, the innovative Prairie Hill Co-Housing is a leader in co-housing, land stewardship, master planning, sustainability and intergenerational living.

The development is on 7.3 acres and has 37 residences with 55 residents.

Thirty of its units have earned LEED for Homes Gold Certification and it was a 2024 United States Green Building Council LEED Home Award winner in the Outstanding Multifamily category, earning praise as a leading example of sustainability and environmental stewardship.

“Some co-housing is restricted to people over 55, but we didn’t do that—we wanted the vibrancy of youth,” said Barbara Bailey, co-founder and resident of Prairie Hill.

“Life is centered on a 5,000-square-foot common house with a big kitchen, laundry and guest rooms.”

People buy units at Prairie Hill, which has studios, and one-, two- and three-bedroom units.

More than half the acreage is dedicated to orchards, gardens and land conservation.

The development is planted in prairie grass, so it does not need to be watered or mowed.

The all-electric homes are designed for energy efficiency. Solar panels generate more power than the development consumes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ART DECO AND UNIVERSAL DESIGN IN MIAMI’S LITTLE HAVANA

ACCESSIBLE / INCLUSIVE HOUSING CAN AND SHOULD BE BEAUTIFUL

Perfect Miami city block of Art Deco apartments has access ramps leading to accessible first floor units.

Dozens of 1948, 2-story apartments that resemble the colorful Pueblo Deco style.

Accessible and inclusive housing can and should be beautiful.

Miami-Dade County housing in Little Havana at SW 6 Ave & SW 4 St.

CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

Jim Elliott, senior transportation planner at Toole Design, said community engagement is key to designing places based on facts and needs, not stereotypes. 

He mentioned Toole Design’s work on the “LA Safe Routes for Seniors” project, which aims to eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes involving older adult Angelinos.

The project team’s approach to engage seniors in the planning process has evolved over time to emphasize in-person engagement opportunities, such as senior center site visits and one-on-one interviews, instead of electronic methods, such as online surveys, which some may have difficulty using.

“We need to control speeds and make it more comfortable to traverse streets,” said Jeremy Chrzan, multimodal design practice lead at Toole Design.

“We need things like pedestrian refuges that break up the number of lanes people must cross.

We need raised crosswalks — they are outstanding for people using wheelchairs for mobility and they slow down drivers. Even material choice factors in.

Fancy pavers that look like stones might look nice, but they often settle and become tripping hazards.”

CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

There is a misconception that older adults want to move away from the hustle and bustle of the city, or even the streetcar suburb, to live in isolated senior communities.

Jeremy Chrzan, multimodal design practice lead at Toole Design, said the fact is lots of older adults are moving into more urbanized areas.

Some are downsizing, leaving the big yard and big house for a smaller urban unit because they want nearby access to health care, recreation, the arts, shopping and more.

He said a well-connected transit system is key to intergenerational communities, because it connects people who are too young to drive, too old to drive or just plain don’t want to drive

CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

Jeremy Chrzan, multimodal design practice lead at Toole Design, said density is the key.

Many people equate density with Manhattan, but that is height, not density. Density can take the form of low- or mid-rise buildings with a mix of uses.

“The idea of greater density and where people can walk and bike is consistent with what people say they want,” Chrzan said, noting an Urban Land Institute study that revealed more than half of the people in the nation want to live in a place where they don’t have to use a car.

“There are a lot of linkages between land-use planning and development.

There is a chasm between what people develop and what people want to rent or buy.”

CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

Jim Elliott, senior transportation planner at Toole Design, said planning for seniors and intergenerational communities sometimes focuses on bike-pedestrian paths but forgets to address a healthy mix of land use. “Getting land use right is really critical for creating walkable communities.

You have to have the destinations that are nearby for people to go to—parks, stores, healthcare, places to exercise, people to visit,” he said.

Elliott said creating new or retrofitting existing areas to support intergenerational communities must provide a variety of transportation options.

He said his mother lives in an Arizona community intentionally designed for older adults.

“They made the mistake of assuming that everyone could drive,” he said of the Arizona 55+ community developed decades ago.

“It has great sidewalks, but they do not connect to stores or places people need to go. It causes a lot of stress for [his mom].

She is at the point of feeling uncomfortable in a car.

But she’s also feeling like she can’t give up her car because she can’t [do chores and errands] without it.”

 

 

 

 

CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

In the APA research paper that he co-authored, Irv Katz, senior fellow emeritus at Generations United and former president & CEO of the National Human Services Assembly, cites major studies that both underscore the problems of today’s siloed living and makes the case for an emphasis on town planning centered on intergenerational interactions.

“The way we have planned our communities has had disproportionate impacts on the health and well-being of children and older adults.

They suffer from a lack of safe spaces for independent mobility; a lack of public spaces that address their needs; and a lack of opportunities for social participation,” the report states.

“Anxiety and depression are on the rise in today’s adolescents (NIHCM Foundation 2021). Older adults are living longer, but many suffer from loneliness and social isolation (National Academies 2020).

We have an urgent need for a social recovery of our cities, and children and older adults must be centered in our response.”

CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

Irv Katz, senior fellow emeritus at Generations United and former president & CEO of the National Human Services Assembly, urged planners to be intentional about creating environments in which young and old connect organically to the benefit of both and benefit to society.

He said it would be great if mayors, planning commissions, county councils, etc., stopped the battle of single-family vs. multifamily zoning and instead focused on a range of housing types that are both affordable and conducive to intergenerational living.

WIDE, ACCESSIBLE, BARRIER-FREE SIDEWALKS BENEFIT EVERYONE

VISITORS ARE APPALLED AT THE MISSING, BROKEN AND BLOCKED SIDEWALKS THROUGHOUT GREATER MIAMI

OUR LEADERS SHOULD BE ASHAMED

Miami’s endless assault on pedestrian mobility—especially brutal for people with disabilities—is vomitrocious.

Developer builds a wider, welcoming sidewalk—then fire hydrant/posts subtract 40% of its space.

Clearly the hydrant could have gone in space outside sidewalk.

CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

Irv Katz, senior fellow emeritus at Generations United and former president & CEO of the National Human Services Assembly, said Universal Design should be emphasized in housing units and communities.

A barrier-free approach is a must for the one in four people that have some level of disability; it allows comfortable living for people who are aging; and it creates wide sidewalks and safer streets to cross for young people.

“It creates access to health and social services; schools, libraries and other public facilities; as well as commercial development where people work and meet their daily needs,” he said.

“It would be cool if planners thought of those elements not as different things, but as essential parts that must be woven together to create livable small communities within the big communities.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

Irv Katz, senior fellow emeritus at Generations United and former president & CEO of the National Human Services Assembly, shared that nearly three million children are being raised by grandparents in this country.

But very little housing is being built to support that. Land-use regulations sometimes prevent it.

Katz said cities could learn from Plaza West, a 12-story, 223-unit apartment building in the Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Fifty units are targeted to “grandfamilies”—grandparents who are raising grandchildren where the parent is not present. The affordable development is next to a park, where more intergenerational interaction can take place.

“It is designed not just with single-bedroom apartments for seniors—which is typically what we do.

It has multiple bedroom units for grandparents raising two, three or four children,” said Katz, emphasizing that masterplans and zoning code must be more flexible to allow diverse housing.

“We can learn a lot from and should emulate immigrant communities.

They tend to have multiple generations under one roof.

Everyone benefits.”

 

 

 

CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

Irv Katz, senior fellow emeritus at Generations United and former president & CEO of the National Human Services Assembly, said planners are aware of the need for intergenerational communities, but the notion hasn’t “reached the levers of power”—

the mayors, congress members and others who can support intergenerational living with everything from zoning that allows it, infrastructure that encourages it, and funding that supports it.

“We do housing in developments as little islands. 

They may have sidewalks, but they may not connect to daily needs or even the adjacent neighborhood.

We need to think of clusters of neighborhoods that together create a village,” he said. “Walkability, bikeability and access for people with disabilities is a must.”

CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

Irv Katz, senior fellow emeritus at Generations United and former president & CEO of the National Human Services Assembly, co-authored a research paper on aging trends and placemaking for the APA.

He collaborated with Matthew Kaplan, Ph.D., professor of Intergenerational Programs and Aging in the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology and Education at Pennsylvania State University.

“We have this big boomer population that is retired or retiring.

Whether they are poor or wealthy, they get steered to live in [isolated elder communities],” Katz said.

“They only interact with children once or twice per year—when the grandchildren arrive or a scout troop comes in to sing Christmas carols.

We must plan for housing that doesn’t create such silos.”

CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

Considering that America is rapidly aging, a huge emphasis has been placed on aging in place. In countless surveys, about three out of four Americans don’t want to have to move to an oft-isolated, senior-only community just to have homes that are more accessible, that don’t require walking up and down stairs, and that have showers to walk or roll into instead of tubs to fall over.

The American Planning Association (APA) and many leading urban designers agree that more has to be done to create communities that are inclusive to all ages and abilities.

They are striving for communities that include co-housing, all-ages parks, multigenerational cultural centers and Universal Design to create easy access for all—to harness the benefits of intergenerational living.

CREATING INTERGENERATIONAL COMMUNITIES

MIXING PEOPLE OF ALL AGES IN THEIR LIVING ENVIRONMENT LEADS TO HEALTHIER, MORE FULFILLED, BETTER CONNECTED AND ACTIVE LIFESTYLES

For much of the 21st century, planning concepts have taken aim at the development patterns of the second half of the 20th century.

Studies showed the inequity, isolation and obesity that car-centered land use created and the resulting large suburban lots, giant highways and total reliance on automobile ownership to connect to jobs, schools, shops, healthcare and even parks.

With all the movement toward healthier cities, inclusion and connectivity—planners, regulators and developers may still have missed an essential element: Interaction among all ages.

The number of mixed-use, multimodal communities where multiple generations live among each other is growing, but still the different age groups don’t interact and benefit from each other.

Intergenerational communities are places intentionally designed to encourage seniors, youth, and those in between to interact, exchange ideas, help each other out... and thrive.

 

 

MIAMI BEACH CONTRAGULATES ITSELF FOR BEING INCLUSIVE

WHILE ENSURING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES ARE EXCLUDED

The Marlin Hotel is an historic Art Deco gem in the heart of South Beach.

The Collins Avenue landmark has a nice restaurant.

The City of Miami Beach is content to prevent wheelchair users from entering.

The locked gate blocks wheelchair users from using the marked accessible route.

I know Global Accessibility Awareness Day focuses on digital access for people with disabilities.

But I discovered this on GAAD, so I will go old school and make this GAAD post about physical access.

The city allows buildings to have certificates of occupancy and business to make millions while discriminating against wheelchair users.

Must people with disabilities scream and beg for dignity and access?

ALL URBAN DESIGN SHOULD BE HUMAN-CENTERED

UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE PATH TO ACHIEVING IT

I recount the conversation where the urban designers says, “I rarely see people with disabilities in my town, so I don’t prioritize their inclusion when I’m designing a new town or upgrading an old neighborhood.”

And I counter “with 85 million people with disabilities in the U.S., it’s not because there aren’t many folks with disabilities in your city – it’s because you are designing everything so poorly, so ableist, that they don’t have the equity and inclusion they deserve.

They want to be immersed in your city, adding to its vibrancy, but you keeping planning and building things that exclude them.

You better address that, or the city will replace you with somebody who can design for all.”

Remember, anything public that is not equally accessible to all is a failure of the basic tenants of civil rights and equal treatment for all.

One of my Universal Design students said it best when he reviewed a town plan that isolated people with disabilities and stripped them of the basic dignity of inclusive mobility.

He observed: “If you city doesn’t work for everyone, it works for no one.”

 

ALL URBAN DESIGN SHOULD BE HUMAN-CENTERED

UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE PATH TO ACHIEVING IT

Government – be it a town, city, county, regional, state or federal agency – MUST take the lead on hiring people with disabilities as planners, architects, engineers and designers that create an inclusive built environment. 

Government often was a leader in hiring people of color and women and giving them the tools to take on leadership roles.

It needs to do the same with people with disabilities. 

Beyond that, every city advisory board should be required to a person with a disability on it.

How can the 13 person board that oversees the spending of a $250 million capital improvements bond ensure that main entrances will be accessible, pools will have lifts, sidewalks will be built extra wide and libraries will have access to all floors – if there is not one person with a disability among the other dozen?

How can an 11 member parks advisory board design for inclusion if no person with a disability serves on it?

How can a 9-person planning board create a better built environment for all if it doesn’t have a person who has lived with a disability and is intensely aware of barriers? 

When I speak to standing room only audiences at major conferences for urban designers, planners and others – I talk about the chicken and egg effect.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ALL URBAN DESIGN SHOULD BE HUMAN-CENTERED

UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE PATH TO ACHIEVING IT

The template for hiring people with disabilities for urban design jobs is there.

We just need to get guidance counselors, design school deans and recruiters for firms in the profession – to take the extra step to welcome and ramp up the hiring of this element of diversity. 

We have seen how a diverse workforce has greatly contributed to innovative and lasting design.

It’s time for people with disabilities to have those opportunities.

While on the subject, while they are rare – because of structural ableism – there are some urban designers, architects and engineers with physical disabilities.

Do not ask them to review something for accessibility without paying their going rate. That is out of bounds.

Do you think the largest Hispanic-owned Madison Avenue advertising firm helps Fortune 500 companies reach the Spanish speaking market “just for the cause” of raising Hispanic awareness, or do you think they charge a fabulous rate for their top of class experience, expertise and insight?

They charge a small fortune, as well they should.

Don’t ask people with disabilities to do expert work “just for the cause” of more inclusion.

 

 

 

ALL URBAN DESIGN SHOULD BE HUMAN-CENTERED

UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE PATH TO ACHIEVING IT

The key to people with disabilities working at planning and architecture firms is aggressive recruiting. 

Universities that teach urban design, architecture and engineering must be reaching out to high schools to recruit students with disabilities. 

Many may think you have to climb a telephone pole or ease down to a sewer line to perform the work.

Truth is, the vast majority of work is done on a computer.

And all but the most remote of field visits can be done by wheelchair.

Graduate design programs should aggressively recruiting nontraditional students and midcareer professionals with disabilities.

Firms should very aggressively recruit, train, promote and retain people with physical and other disabilities.

I’m tired of hearing “we can’t find anybody than can do the job.”

Or “if we hired them, their role would be very limited and they could not be a project manager.”

I’m old enough to have heard that about both women and people of color in the urban design/architecture/engineering fields.

There still is not full parity, but aggressive recruiting and retention at every level has boosted numbers tremendously.

Some of those folks who couldn’t get an internship are now the owners of award-winning, influential firms owned by women and people of color.

 

 

 

 

ALL URBAN DESIGN SHOULD BE HUMAN-CENTERED

UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE PATH TO ACHIEVING IT

One of the problems is recruiting and retaining people with disabilities in the urban design and related professions.

I have worked directly with well more than 2,000 planners, architects and engineers – those who create virtually all of the built environment.

Few if any have had a wheelchair user on their full-time staff. 

If I met a person with a mobility impairment, it was a temporary one from a skiing accident…meaning they would not have to find permanent accessible housing, transportation, recreation, jobsite and much more. 

Perhaps there were some people with invisible disabilities, such as epilepsy.

That is good for diversity, but how can you know what is really needed to thrive with a disability, if you are basing your design on a 60 minute ADA webinar you half paid attention to or a 75 minute continuing education Universal Design course that you used to catch up on texts and emails?

 

 

 

 

ALL URBAN DESIGN SHOULD BE HUMAN-CENTERED

UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE PATH TO ACHIEVING IT

Ever go to the opening ceremony for a new community pool, computer lab, daycare, gym, library?

Guaranteed the mayor and city manager will brag about it being state of the art, best of the best.

Ask about the plans for a rebuilding a sidewalk broken by tree roots and heavy trucks and city leadership will speak of just meeting ADA compliance by a hairbreadth.  

See the difference? 

Even when pressed, they say the disability community should be thrilled if one tenth of the public realm is accessible at a bare minimum.

If they broke their leg, would they like the doctor to toss a bandage and two aspirins at them and walk away satisfied that bare minimum medical treatment was delivered?

 

 

THERE IS NO DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

WITHOUT DISABILITY

I support Diversity, Equity & Inclusion 100% 

Sadly, 90% of the time I am bitterly disappointed because those framing it completely exclude disability.

I met with a VP of DEI from a major university.

They point blank said disability won't be part of its DEI for foreseeable future.

The blatant exclusion of disability from DEI -- MUST be fixed.

People with disabilities are by far the most under and unemployed of all marginalized groups.

Not because of their disability, but because of structural ableism.

UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE PATH TO ACHIEVING IT

UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE PATH TO ACHIEVING IT

If the sidewalk network and/or transit station (think of hundreds of New York subway stations and Chicago elevated trains without elevators) is not inclusive, a person with a disability may not be able to make it to an essential appointment for a health checkup or treatment.

Urban Design that fails to create inclusive parks and recreation can create social isolation.

Social isolation is one of the biggest contributors to the decline in mental and physical health in senior citizens and people with disabilities.

In most states, the departments of transportation allow just one curbramp at the extreme corner of an intersection.

It does not line up with crosswalk or sidewalk.

This means a person using a wheelchair has to partially roll out into oncoming traffic.

The best practice is a beveled curb ramp covering the entirety of all four corners of an intersection. 

This is another case of minimum ADA compliance NOT being a best practices approach to urban design.

Never design at the bare minimum 1 to 12 grade for accessibility ramps. 

If the builder misses the mark by a little bit, the ramp is too steep. If the ground settles a tad, the ramp may not be safe for people with disabilities.

 

 

ALL URBAN DESIGN SHOULD BE HUMAN-CENTERED

UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE PATH TO ACHIEVING IT

Disability discrimination is called ableism. 

Ableism is devaluing a person with a disability because they are disabled. It is exactly like racism, which devalues on skin color and culture.

Both are indefensible and sometimes lethal.

It can be as simple as sidewalks.

If a city fails to maintain broken sidewalks and fill in missing parts, a person with a disability is forced to go out into the street to continue their journey to a transit station. 

Pedestrian deaths are almost constantly on the rise, so putting more people into danger’s path is very bad planning.

 

 

 

 

ALL URBAN DESIGN SHOULD BE HUMAN-CENTERED

UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE PATH TO ACHIEVING IT

It is incredible that virtually every prototype for robotaxis and driverless public transportation vehicles – is a sedan that cannot accommodate a wheelchair users.

Even companies that boast they are creating the transportation of the future for all, push back on accessible vehicles.

They basically say, let us figure this out for a decade, then we’ll include power wheelchair users. 

Can you imagine saying “we won’t let people of color in this park for a decade, till we perfect it.

Or, well, we won’t seat women in this performing arts center for about a dozen years, till we get the operation going perfectly.

There would be outrage.

As well there should be.

But create the vehicle of the future, and you apparently get to discriminate.

ALL URBAN DESIGN SHOULD BE HUMAN-CENTERED

UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE PATH TO ACHIEVING IT

For those hardline fiscal folks unconvinced of spending to make every mode of transportation accessible (including taxis, rideshare, autonomous fleet vehicles and airport shuttles), check out this fact. 

A 2020 study by the North Carolina Housing Finance Agency found that for every dollar spent on home repair (to make it more accessible for aging and disability), there were $19 in Medicare savings.

If we invest in accessible transportation, sidewalks, parks, shops, housing, schools and more – we get a huge return on investment.

 

ALL URBAN DESIGN SHOULD BE HUMAN-CENTERED

UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE PATH TO ACHIEVING IT

Homebuilders must catch on that there is value in creating a house with one level entrance, with exterior and interior doors wide enough for wheelchairs, plus kitchens and baths fitted for access.

I remember when people told me roll-in showers were horrible and felt like bathing in a decrepit VA hospital.

Today, many of the hippest hotel brands feature all units with walk-in showers.

Turns out young professionals prefer a rain head plus shower wand vs. a dirty tub and the possibility of tripping over its side with wet feet.

Pocket doors and barn doors work well, because they remove hinges that can snag a wheelchair, walker or other assistive mobility device.

They also look great – barn doors for kitchen and living room entrances grace the covers of interior design magazines.

A shower bench, which allows a person with limited mobility to safely transfer into a shower and sit during bathing – can be made of lovely teakwood.

 

ALL URBAN DESIGN SHOULD BE HUMAN-CENTERED

UNIVERSAL DESIGN IS THE PATH TO ACHIEVING IT

The ADA National Network has calculated that the cost of incorporating accessibility features in new construction is less than one percent of construction costs.

The organization notes that is a small price in relation to the economic benefits to be derived from full accessibility in the future, such as increased employment and consumer spending.

Yet less than one percent of all housing in the U.S. is readily accessible to people who use wheelchairs.

Virtually all of that is in multifamily units.

Quick side note.

Because my personal and professional experience is rooted in physical disability, that is what most of my “do this, don’t do that” examples are built on.

I stick to what I know, but beyond mobility disabilities – cities and the professionals that design/build them MUST also address visual, hearing and cognitive disabilities.

 

 

 

HONORED TO SHARE MY UNIVERSAL DESIGN/BETTER MOBILITY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITES EXPERTISE ON THE GRANDEST OF STAGES

CREATING ACCESSIBLE, HEALTHY, AND SMART

MULTIMODAL COMMUNITIES THROUGH TRANSPORTATION

I’m proud to share that my “The Universal Design Toolbox for Complete Streets: INCLUSIVE MOBILITY MADE EASY,” will be part of the prestigious 2025 Joint ITE International and Florida Puerto Rico District Annual Meeting and Exhibition taking place this August in Orlando, Florida.

My Universal Design-driven expert session was co-created with David Haight, FAICP LEED AP ND, Transportation Planner/Urban Designer of global built environment firm AtkinsRéalis.

Our expertise will be shared via “Creating Accessible, Healthy, and Smart Multimodal Communities Through Transportation” – a curated technical podium session.

ITE, A Community of Transportation Professionals, was founded nearly a century ago as the Institute of Transportation Engineers.

It has 18,000 members and chose our presentation out of hundreds of abstracts submitted.

It is extremely rare to have a non-engineer, non-certified planner chosen as an expert speaker.

I am honored to create better mobility and inclusion for people with disabilities.