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Design elements for people with mobility limitations are visible nearly everywhere, from ramps in offices to grab rails in restroom stalls. But that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s always been part of the plan from the start.
“Accessible design was always a bit of an afterthought,” says Ed Warner, founder and CEO, Motionspot, a London agency specializing in accessible design and the U.K. government’s sector champion for accessible design.
In many cases, accessibility often only comes into play as clients scramble to meet requirements.
“Most times, the biggest challenge for accessibility is designers are involved in a project too late. But that’s changing,” says Miriam Van der Lubbe, partner at Van Eijk & Van der Lubbe, Geldrop, the Netherlands.
What was once a matter of ticking a box has morphed into an understanding that designing for all levels of mobility is essential to building a better world. An estimated 1 billion people—15% of the world’s population—has a disability, per the World Bank. In the United States alone, 61 million people—or 1 in 4 adults—have a disability according to the Centers for Disease Control. And those numbers will only increase: As much of the world’s population grows older, so too does the number of people with mobility challenges. In 2019, there were 703 million people aged 65 years or over, and that number is expected to double to 1.5 billion by 2050, according to the United Nations.
Of course, there are also business benefits to creating accessible design. “People with disabilities and their families have buying power, and most people won’t want to spend money at places where they feel separated,” says Karen Braitmayer, founder of Studio Pacifica, an architecture and accessibility consulting firm in Seattle.
“One of my pet peeves is the trend of high-top tables in restaurants,” she says. “When I walk into a restaurant and all I see is high-top tables, I turn around and leave.”
To truly prioritize accessibility, designers with mobility disabilities need to be part of the discussion from day one. As one of the world’s estimated 132 million wheelchair users, Braitmayer says her experience often informs her perspective on projects.
“People with disabilities are hackers. Because so much of the world is not accessible, we’re constantly trying to think about how to rework the environment so we can do what we want to do,” she says.
That can mean recommending that clients place elevators in more prominent positions or that they incorporate reception desks that allow wheelchair users to see over the counter. And it touches all aspects of design: color, materials, lighting, acoustics. “All these design elements have an enormous impact on the lives of disabled people,” Warner says.
