Universal Design

Evidence of the principle called Universal Design is all around the NC State campus. It is in the form of, for example, levered door handles, curb cuts, automated doors, drinking fountains at different heights, and even in university mailrooms that have scissors usable by both left-handed and right-handed people. One of the most important theories of 20th century design, it continues to influence architecture, landscapes, and the products we use everyday. Universal Design at NC State, however, has an even deeper history: the concept was born at NC State University.

In 1966, Ronald L. Mace earned a Bachelor of Arts in Architecture from the School of Design. He used his training, creative abilities, and experiences as a wheelchair user to produce not only innovative designs but a new philosophy of accessibility. His education came at a time when disability rights activists—led by veterans and workers—were beginning to make significant gains in dismantling the stigmas and discriminations imposed upon people with disabilities. Like many civil rights activists, disability rights advocates used the law. In the 1960s and 70s and led by activists, local and state organizations started to alter codes and regulations that eliminated physical barriers in housing, public buildings, and transportation. The Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibited discrimination based on ability, became federal law in 1991. Activists dealt with the backlash from those who thought accessibility was too costly and ugly, especially when it altered historic buildings considered stately. Mace and his colleagues at NC State shifted the public dialogue considerably.

In the book Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design, design historian Bess Williamson explains that Mace coined the term “universal design” in 1985 that “gave a name to the idea that many designers, engineers, medical specialists, and individual with disabilities had articulated for years--namely, that designing for people with disabilities was not different from designing for everyone else.(148)” She notes that Mace’s work, with its focus on empowering local agencies to find elegant, functional, and aesthetically pleasing solutions for maximum access played a significant role in the creation and maintenance of healthy communities. She cites his 1974 Illustrated Handbook of the Handicapped Section of the North Carolina State Building Code as a model for teaching decision-makers about universal design and facilitating the implementation of its principles. Using the very language of design—drawing—to explain the building codes, Mace turned the dense prose into easily usable instructions. Its brilliance was in using universal design principles to explain universal design.

In 1974, Mace founded Barrier Free Environments, Inc., a firm that focused on accessibility assessment, design, consulting, education,and advocacy. Based in Raleigh, the company gained an international reputation for design excellence. By 1989 he formalized his collaborations with professors in the School of Design at NC State. He worked with the School to create the Center for Accessible Housing, which later became the Center for Universal Design. After the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1991, his reputation had grown enough that he even endorsed products. In a 1992 ad for Dupont Carpet, Mace explained the concept of Universal Design:

As designers, we were taught almost nothing about design for children or older people or women--let alone people with disabilities. Our focus was able-bodied six-foot adult males. Universal design expands that vision to include all people. It goes beyond the codes to make things universally accessible, usable by everyone, all the time, everywhere.

The ad featured a stylized image of Mace in his chair going up the side of a building with a cityscape in the background. President George H.W. Bush awarded the Distinguished Service Award of the President of the United States to Mace in 1992. In 1997, NC State honored Mace with its Distinguished Alumni Award. Design historian Bess Williamson has noted that the concept of Universal Design provided some with an easy way to de-emphasize the civil rights work of disability activists by shifting the emphasis to universality from discrimination, but Mace never wavered in his advocacy and activism for the rights of people with disabilities for robust participation in society. Ron Mace died in Raleigh in 1998 from polio-related heart arrhythmia.

From its office in Leazar Hall, the School of Design’s Center for Universal Design served as a clearinghouse for information on universal design principles until it closed due to state budget cuts in 2008. Mace’s legacy, however, lives in spaces all around the globe—including NC State—where people find environments and products easier to use. People using wheelchairs, people pushing strollers, left-handed people looking for scissors, children needing a drink from a drinking fountain, students getting to class on skateboards and scooters—everyone—benefits from his thoughtful, creative, and powerful theory of design grounded in the civil rights of people with disabilities.

Original Sources

Center for Universal Design. Archived web site. https://projects.ncsu.edu/ncsu/design/cud/. 2008.

Ronald L. Mace Papers, MC 00260, Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, NC https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/findingaids/mc00260/

Mace, Ronald L, and North Carolina. Governor's Study Committee on Architectural Barriers. An Illustrated Handbook of the Handicapped Section of the North Carolina State Building Code : Including a Reprint of General Construction, Volume 1, Section 11x, Making Buildings & Facilities Accessible to & Usable by the Physically Handicapped and Dec. 1973 Amendments : For the Governor's Study Committee on Architectural Barriers and the North Carolina Department of Insurance. [Updated Ed.] ed. Raleigh?: Publisher Not Identified, 1976.

For Further Reading

Nielsen, Kim E. A Disability History of the United States. Boston: Beacon Press, 2012.

Williamson, Bess. Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design. New York: New York University Press, 2019.