Design for All

BY DEBORAH PADDISON

Your Universal Design Client

A New Kind of "Roll Model"

If you were asked to picture the type of client you believe is most likely to request universal design accommodations in their new home or remodel, you'd probably often think of someone older who can no longer perform everyday tasks without difficulty due to aging-related issues.

Well, people with disabilities not only come in all shapes and sizes, but all ages, too. Not everyone who can benefit from universal design is over 60 and only concerned about getting up and down stairs or in and out of the bathroom. Some are 20- or 30-something and also want accessible storage spaces for their skis, tennis rackets and scuba gear.

Rolling with Style

Proof of that can be found by taking a peek behind the scenes of a unique event that just took place during New York's Fashion Week. On February 6, Cipriani on 42nd Street was the site of the Rolling With Style Gala, a novel kind of fashion show. Top fashion designers were asked to use their talents to come up with a one-of-a-kind fashion statement for a wheelchair, which would carry an inspirational female "roll model" down the runway. Participating designers included Nicole Miller and Lloyd Klein, as well as several Project Runway alums.

The "roll models" were wheelchair users selected in a national search because of their inspirational responses to their disabilities: Michelle Boardman (Harleysville, Pennsylvania), Melissa Holley (Nashville, Tennessee), Rosemarie Rossetti, Ph.D. (Columbus, Ohio) and Jenny Smith (Louisville, Kentucky). The event honored these women and also raised funds for the Christopher Reeve Foundation, the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, and the Spinal Cord Injury Project at Rutgers University.

If You Can't Stand Up, Stand Out

The gala is the brainchild of an organization called Discovery Through Design (www.discoverythroughdesign.org), a nonprofit group founded by four "chairwomen" with spinal cord injuries:

Marilyn Hamilton—One year after a hang-gliding accident left her a paraplegic, Hamilton used the same materials in a hang glider and designed a revolutionary new type of lightweight wheelchair called the Quickie (the wheelchairs used for the Rolling With Style fashion show). In 1986 her business was purchased by Sunrise Medical Inc., where she today serves as that company's vice president of global strategic planning. Hamilton, of Carmel, California, has been recognized with many business awards, and her story has been featured in the media. An accomplished athlete, she is a six-time National Disabled Ski Champion and has twice won the U.S. Women's Open Wheelchair Tennis Championships. She remains active snow skiing, riding her Quickie hand cycle, playing tennis, scuba diving and traveling.

Wendy Crawford—Crawford grew up in Ontario, Canada. An excellent athlete in high school, she participated in track and volleyball and also was an equestrian. She had just begun a career as a model when a drunk driver hit her car and left her paralyzed. Afterward, she refocused her energies into public speaking, founding a custom-made clothing business, and presenting charity events such as fashion shows and movie premieres to raise funds for spinal cord research. Today she lives in Miami Shores, Florida and is the founder of www.mobilewomen.org, an informational Web site for disabled women focusing on women's health issues. In her spare time she enjoys swimming and scuba diving and has tried hang-gliding and kayaking.

Julia Stockton Dorsett—During her freshman year pursuing a communications degree at Ithaca College, Dorsett was in a car accident that left her a paraplegic. She had always participated in sports, and her competitive spirit never changed. Today the Boca Raton, Florida resident models, travels the world scuba diving and teaches tennis to disabled youth-she is a professional wheelchair tennis player and represented the United States in the 2004 Summer Paralympic Games in Greece.

Ashley Lauren Fisher—Born and raised in New Jersey, Fisher was rendered a quadriplegic as the result of a diving accident at age 23. As a young lady she studied for 10 years with the Jersey Ballet Company, learning jazz and classical ballet and participating in many theatrical performances, including The Nutcracker. A talented pianist, she was tutored by a Juilliard Master and was invited to perform in Italy when she was 12. As a teenager she gravitated toward modeling and acting, and was a dancer for MTV in several music videos. She also excelled in sports, with skateboarding, snowboarding, swimming and lacrosse among her many talents. Today she lives in Morristown, New Jersey, where she works as an actress and is a partner in a four-star Italian restaurant.

These four women have combined their skills, energies and accomplishments to found Discovery Through Design and create a tremendous positive impact. "A sense of beauty and self is vital, and this event is the first step in our campaign to change the way our society perceives women in wheelchairs," Fisher says about the Rolling With Style Gala.

Crawford adds, "We demonstrate that though our accidents may have changed our method of mobility, they did not take away our joie de vivre. We have the same needs as able-bodied women for beauty, adventure, achievement and respect—for well-lived lives."

Different Perspective

Learning about an event like the Rolling With Style Gala and the women behind it is a reminder that universal design solutions—and the people who need them—fall along a wide spectrum; there's no one-size-fits-all approach. It's a nudge to designers and architects to think outside the box as they design personal and public spaces so that active, ambitious people of all ages with disabilities can live fulfilling lives.

Nicole Miller's wheelchair design for the Rolling With Style fashion show.