Accessibility for all: A case study of the access living headquarters

Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago is a nonresidential Center for Independent Living for people with all types of disabilities. This article describes the process of creating an accessible environment for their new headquarters. A charrette involving members of the Chicago disability community, as well as experts on accessibility and Universal Design, was conducted to investigate how architecture and technology could be integrated into the design that would help improve the function of the building. Design solutions for the building entrance, bathrooms, lighting, work stations, and elevators are described in this article. By understanding what the client needed and by doing careful research to find the right products, conventional products were used almost 100% of the time. With the exception of the TTYs in the elevator, there were no customized products. This meant that there was no need to pay more for the Universal Design when it came to building products.