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Monday, January 8, 2007

Design for Everyone, Disabled or Not

From the NY Times, an article forwarded by Reverend Bill Gaventa about the importance of universal design...and it's ability to help PWD regain their dignity.

3 comments:

Dream Mom said...

I love it! Universal design IS for everyone!

I had a house built many years ago when my own Dear Son was only three years old. I had many features put in to help. At the time, I didn't have any idea with regards to what to expect for his future so I put in a few things with the understanding that I could add some other things later. The builder was able to raise the foundation 8 inches to eliminate the steps. No one every noticed. All three foot wide doorways were installed and we chose an open floor plan. I had pocket doors installed in a room off the family room that I used for dressing and diaper changes along with toys. The result was a beautiful home that would work for anyone. When I was ready to sell it, it sold in less than a week. I doubt many of the people realized all of the "accessible" features it had but we certainly appreciated them.

Universal design is nothing more than "good" design that works for everyone. I wish more people would understand that.

As always, good post Ruth.

Rosemary said...

We planned so many things in advance over the years. I wish we had planned for Universal Design when we had our house built. Both these articles were fantastic!!

Ruth said...

dream mom - so good to hear from you - and thanks for commenting on your experience.

db - i loved the articles too - lots of information in there. You might want to look in Rolling Rains Report (link in my disabled link area). Scott has a lot of information on universal design over there if you enjoyed these articles!