The Father of Universal Design
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and in celebration, we’re going to look at the life of famed architect Ronald L. Mace and his human factors legacy.
Mace is known as the Father of Universal Design, introducing one of the primary ideas in human factors engineering. Universal Design ensures that the workplace and tools we use are capable of serving the wide range of people who may work within them, making it a vital part of our TapRooT® Process.
In 1950, at the age of 9, Mace contracted polio and spent a year in the hospital. This left his legs paralyzed, and he used a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
His disability influenced the way he operated within the architecture space, showing him the weaknesses in systems that excluded others like himself.
Mace spent his life advocating for accessibility baked into design, from wheelchair ramps built into buildings to products that people can use regardless of their impaired ability. His advocacy was met with a success we can still see today.
His work was an instrumental part of North Carolina’s adoption of Chapter 11X, the first accessibility-focused building code to be adopted in the United States. When federal legislation was eventually passed prohibiting disability discrimination (such as the Fair Housing Amendments Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act), they built on the precedent set by Chapter 11X in order to to do so.
Mace also founded the federally-funded Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University’s School of Design. This Center is still a leading resource for those hoping to develop universal design in their products, architecture, and environment.
Mace died in 1998, but his legacy still sets the human factors industry ablaze with hope. His concept of Universal Design does more than providing those with disabilities a place in various industries; it protects them, too. Good design protects its users from making the mistakes that lead to terrible incidents, and accessible design protects a larger group of potential employees under its umbrella.
Protecting your employees is what we’re all about. TapRooT® RCA is a system built by human factors experts inspired by the work of those like Ronald L. Mace. The corrective actions we offer include universal design principles to ensure your solutions include as many of your employees as possible.
If you’re interested in learning how to begin this improvement at your workplace, you can contact us for a free briefing here.
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