Adaptive Environments is a world-class resource on inclusive design. Their online book, Building a World Fit for People: Designers with Disabilities at Work, is just one example of their work.
From the book:
Taide Buenfil Garza has evolved her work as an architect in several private and public agencies, with increasing focus and passion for accessible design. In December 2000, the newly elected president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, appointed her to be director of citizens' projects in the Office of Representation for the Social Promotion and Inclusion of Disabled Persons. Taide explains, "This is the first time that we have had an office especially for disabled persons. Before this there were specialized but disconnected programs in the health department or social security, but not everywhere where we needed to be.""We have to explain accessibility to everyone, and how that must become the basis for universal design. This is the way to have the whole country working on the type of new society that we are trying to make, a society of inclusion."
- Taide Buenfil Garza
Maurizio Antoninetti is a designer whose passion is urban design, but until recently, he paid his bills working as an accessibility consultant. His interest in urban design began during his undergraduate years at Politecnico di Milano, Italy, where he earned a B. A. with honor in architecture with a major in urbanism in October 1991. The degree program emphasized urban design, social analysis, and geographic information systems (GIS). In the United States, Maurizio recently completed a master of city planning at San Diego State University, and he has just begun a Ph.D. program, also at San Diego State, where he will research human and urban geography."It can be frustrating when you are a consultant in a specialty that's not very well understood and where good design or universal design is condensed to mere accessibility and code compliance."
- Maurizio Antoninetti
Marcelo Guimaraes is an assistant professor at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and the director of ADAPTSE, the university's research lab on accessibility issues. He earned his bachelor's degree in architecture at this same university, in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning (EA-UFMG), in 1982, and a master's in architecture from the School of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo, in 1991. He has recently begun his doctoral study at the College of Design, North Carolina State University (NCSU). The main focus of Marcelo's career is research and education. He aims at making Brazil a more inclusive society for people with disabilities.Posted by rollingrains at August 24, 2007 08:42 PM"When I was younger, I accepted barriers almost as an inevitable part of the landscape. Now, even though I must cope with some steps and many attitudinal barriers, I challenge, politely, of course, any and all authorities that stand in the way of a barrier-free world."
- Marcelo Pinto Guimaraes