Belonging by Design, Part 3 of 3: Inclusive Design for Creating Equitable Environments

Anticipate and design for the edges of spectrum of ability, age and culture and it will work better for everyone. But assumptions and intuition don’t work. You need to know who you're designing for and who’s at risk of being left out. That includes people with functional limitations that could be minimized by the planning and design choices you make.

The pandemic has starkly exposed the health impact of inequity and racism. Fletcher will share fresh findings from IHCD’s Changing Reality of Disability in America 2020 project that delivers unambiguous information about the role of the environment in not only negatively amplifying but, in some cases, creating disability. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that 26% of US adults have a disability. But it does not apply equally. 40% of people 65+ and 40% of Native Americans have a disability. One in four Black Americans have a disability. And the reasons for functional limitation have shifted dramatically. Chronic health conditions and the spectrum of brain-based conditions are now dominant for all age cohorts.

This extraordinary moment of crisis opens the door to thinking and acting differently about the power of design. We need to act on the demographic evidence and commit to learning from real people who are typically left out in order to inform better designing – of our communities and our built environment. We cannot afford to miss the opportunity.

Intended audiences: planners, architects, municipal leaders and staff, landscape architects, traffic engineers, artists, and others who care about creating vibrant and delightful place to be for everyone..

1.5 AICP credits have been approved for this webinar, program 9204614.

1.5 AIA credits approved.

Thanks to

for their support for this series.

Meet The Presenter

Valerie Fletcher is the Executive Director of the Institute for Human Centered Design in Boston. She has an impressive and extensive CV, which includes global consulting on issues related to universal and human-centered design.to address aging, racial inequities and myriad disbilities that are part of the human conditon.