Institute for Human Centered Design's (IHCD) From Accessible to Universal Design and Back Again, Virtual

What is the right balance between mandates of accessible design standards and the aspirations for fully inclusive environments?

The answer still is evolving and maybe always will be but there have been a lot of lessons learned over the past 30 years. While the necessity of minimum standards, such as the ADA Standards for Accessible Design, has been reinforced, it is also apparent that ultimate success requires the mindset of inclusive design. In this session Rex Pace will share his experience and insights that have evolved while working on these issues in private sector, academic, and governmental roles.

The discussion will revolve around the interrelationship of minimum accessibility requirements, good design choices, and emerging issues with little precedence. Rex will draw on his own design challenges and offer his take on how to handle the competing issues. He has lived both sides of the story, not only applying accessible design standards but also having the responsibility of developing them.

Ultimately, Rex is ever confident in the creativity of designers to transform the basic building blocks of the requirements into vibrant environments that work for real people.