I was researching universal design for an aritcle I wrote last week for Interiors & Sources. Ron Mace coined the term “universal design” more than two decades ago. All designers and architects know about designing to meet the ADA (Americans with Disability Act) Guidelines – it is a given to design spaces that someone with a mobility or vision impairment can use. (Although, sadly, there are still so many spaces you can walk into today that clearly don’t meet the ADA – I don’t know how they get built – but that’s a topic for another entry.) Unlike the ADA Guidelines, which are minimum standards for barrier-free design, universal design “is the design of products and environments to be useable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. Universal design emphasizes the user of any ability and any size.”

Mace shared a story about a hotel he stayed in. Yes, it met the ADA requirements, but all of the bathrooms in the ADA rooms (there was one room on each floor) were for left-hand transfer – Mace requires a bathroom that allows a right-hand transfer. From a builder’s perspective you can understand that the architect stacked all of the ADA rooms in the building, and therefore the bathroom footprint was identical throughout the building. However, if two rooms were provided back-to-back on every other floor, then the same number of ADA rooms would be provided, but a guest would have the choice of a left-hand or right-hand transfer. That is an example of universal design that the ADA does not consider.  

Last week I was invited to speak to the Senior class at Deering High School. In addition to sharing the path that led me to interior design, I was asked to tell the students the one successful decision that I have made over the years. That one thing has to be strategic planning. I leared about the strategic planning process in 1995 and have used it ever since to plan my business. However, it was a professor at Antioch, Ed Tomey, who introduced me to the concept of Personal Strategic Planning. Creating a “road map”, especially when one is beginning his or her career, is a tool that has infinite value. I told the students I would post the Personal Strategic Planning process to this blog. However, because there are several documents involved, if one of those students is reading this and is interested in learning more about the process, please email me and tell me what my major was when I was at UMaine Orono. (I shared that tidbit with the audience last week.) I’ll then email you the documents along with an explanation on how to use the Personal Strategic Planning process.