Politics & Governance

This blog is an announcement and the body of text that follows is copied from NAHB's website:

UNIVERSAL DESIGN/BUILD

This two-day course focuses on integrated home design features and product specifications that account for client differences due to circumstance, physical characteristics, health issues and aging. Universal Design/Build expands on the previous CAPS (Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist) courses by changing the focus from specific modifications to meet the needs of one person to

Happy New Year! Is everyone feeling it? 2011 is gonna be great! Anyone want a 2010 repeat? How about New Year resolutions? I’m a bit compulsive about that – I start in December and finish about now. It’s good. I have a real roadmap for the year ahead.

One resolution is to see this website really blossom by successfully serving lots, I mean millions, of people. Most websites want you to stick around and buy stuff. If you can find what you need and get outta here in 90 seconds,

Do you have a five-year plan? As it is close to New Years, how about a one-year plan for 2011? Those who make a plan are much more likely to achieve their goals than those who don’t. What about your company, what’s their plan? How about your country? Still with me? Or have you clicked outta here?

Go have a look at India’s Five Year Plans (Wikipedia link); maybe just look at the recent plan, the Eleventh 2007-2012 (scroll down). This is a country on the move. This is a country

The provocateur speaking…  What if universal design prevents a very important part of life, that of connecting with our elders. The ideal is ongoing independence, and it is voiced most strongly by those who will retire soon, but what if we are too successful? What if old age becomes just older versions of middle age?

For many, retirement is a lot different today than years ago. It’s no longer a few years to live; it can be as many as twenty or thirty! It’s no longer a ro

Today is a rant ‘n rave: bill statements. I’m talking credit card bills, mortgage statements, cell phone, utility bills … all of them! They get harder and harder to read. And, it’s not just me getting older.

Account numbers, the ones you copy onto your check, used to be trouble free. They were at the top of your bill and were large. They were reinforced by an obvious priority of visual information; your account number was close to the date, billing period and amount due

I’m the oddball having never voted with a paper ballot so this mid-term election was an eye opener. I used to say, “What’s so hard about paper ballots?” Now I know.

I longingly cherish our NYC mechanical voting booths with their bare incandescent lights, threadbare curtains and creaky gears and cranky levers. They made a sound I’ll never forget – the sound of voting … democracy is noisy! I once brought my kids to vote and see these dinosaurs knowing th

In May 2008, I wrote the following:

“One day, there will be the ultimate universal design handbook. It will have well conceived answers to every design quandary, each achieved cost effectively and with elegance. No. That would be as if universal design was a destination, a place we arrive at where solutions were the intention of its creation. This notion that a checklist can be created pervades the present consciousness of legislators and building inspectors alike. We will have measures b

Today’s partisan politics is like a bad marriage. The couple no longer communicates; instead, they undermine each other’s intentions by using any opposing position, even when it doesn’t support their own agenda.

President Obama wants to improve our health care system. He doesn’t have a perfect solution – it’s a work in progress. But, he knows it needs to change because the future of health care, if left at its present course, will be massive failure. Those op

"We must build a world free of unnecessary barriers, stereotypes, and discrimination.... policies must be developed, attitudes must be shaped, and buildings and organizations must be designed to ensure that everyone has a chance to get the education they need and live independently as full citizens in their communities." -- Barack Obama, April 11, 2008

Below are key points from a White House disability progress report:

1. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act included a number of provision

In last week’s post, Universal Design: The 8th Principle, Part I, I departed from the more frequent discussions about how we physically “fit” in our environments and looked at the emotional landscape we have as a result of being perceived and judged as fitting in or not. Here is Part II:

Judgments form the foundation of our daily decision making, and are informed and adjusted by the present situation. Driving a car is a useful example: you learn the skills needed to drive, yet

An eighth principle would be a welcome and needed entry to the brilliant seven as created in 1997 by the North Carolina State University’s Center for Universal Design. Rather than only define the environment of a user, this eighth principle would address perception; those shared by the observer and the observed. How do we see others and how do they see us? Can we build in a way that levels the perceptual playing field in which all players are seen as equal?

I was recently asked if the New

Last week I wrote about visitability. Today I’m surfing the ‘net and discover in the Justice for All blog that the Inclusive Home Design Act (IHDA) has been reintroduced in the House by U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky. On a metaphysical note: start thinking and speaking the world you wish to have, and it will show up.

This legislative history of visitability begins with Eleanor Smith who formed the advocacy organization, Concrete Change; she has been unwavering in her commitment

If you live with a physical limitation, you have added expenses that are rather obvious: maybe a specialized car, home, appliances, electronics, etc. You pretty much know that if you are relocating, the home you choose will require expensive modifications just so you can move in - we’re not even talking about decorating!

If you are able-bodied, do you have such added expenses? The obvious answer is no. You relocate, move in and start decorating - no remodeling the bathroom just to take a

In our nation, there is much relief and hope with the coming Obama administration. I like seeing him speak, I look forward to his words, and I am excited about his choices. He seems personable and genuinely caring.

On December 10 he announced members chosen to be on his green team. I watched the press conference and saw something unusual as a result of a rare camera angle. When it was Nancy Sutley’s turn at the podium the camera shot switched from the rear of the room to the side of the s

I would like to say that a conspiracy took place – at least there’s intention and action in a conspiracy.

At this year AARP Life@50+ annual convention in Washington DC, twenty-five thousand attendees left knowing as much about universal design as when they walked in (nearly none). I really doubt that this was AARP’s intention; perhaps, in all the excitement of pushing product and keeping the 50+ crowd entertained, it just was overlooked.

After walking miles of convention floo