When Judi and David Cornis, who is a wheelchair user, enlisted the Seattle-based prefab company FabCab to build their residence in Port Townsend, Washington, they asked for a space that would permit free movement inside and out, allow them to age in place, and look like a stylish home—not a sterile institution.
Universal Design (UD) is an approach to design that increases the potential for developing a better quality of life for a wide range of individuals. It is a design process that enables and empowers a diverse population by improving human performance, health and wellness, and social participation (Steinfeld and Maisel, 2012). It creates products, systems, and environments to be as usable as possible by as many people as possible regardless of age, ability or situation.
