Accessibility Design in Housing

Accessible design is a hard-fought battle on screens and in streets: many people with disabilities are often barred from both digital and physical communities, in large part because the designers creating those spaces didn’t consider their needs in the process.

Take housing, for example: for housing to be accessible, it needs to be affordable—but it also needs to be accessible across a diversity of disabilities.

We’re partnering with The Kelsey to discuss what disability-forward design looks like; what accessibility design looks like in both housing and tech, and what the two spaces can learn from each other.

Join us on Thursday, October 28th, 12-1pm PT to learn from accessibility design experts about their work and how we can develop ​​housing policies and design standards to ensure that housing is both affordable and accessible for all.

The webinar will be moderated by Hannah Holloway, Senior Policy Manager at TechEquity. Panelists include:

  • Erick Mikiten, Universal Design Architect, Mikiten Architecture / Art of Access
  • Allie Cannington, Manager of Advocacy and Organizing at The Kelsey
  • Cam Luck, Interaction Designer at Google
  • Nicholas Sanchez, Designer and Consultant on DeafSpace

About the Panelists

Erick Mikiten, AIA, founded Mikiten Architecture in 1991 to bring higher levels of artistic design, sustainability, and Universal Design to affordable housing and mixed-use projects. As a wheelchair-riding, hard-of-hearing architect, he realized that 30 years after the ADA came into effect, the profession needs to stretch beyond those basic requirements. In 2021 he created a new firm – a coalition of lived-experience designers and experts – to champion new thinking about combining great design and great inclusion, called The Art of Access.

Image description: Photo of Allie, white queer manual wheelchair user smiling, curly brown hair wearing black t-shirts and pants and green blazer. 

From the Bay Area, Allie Cannington is a white, queer, disabled activist and organizer. As Manager of Advocacy and Organizing at The Kelsey, Allie leads field-building efforts to increase Disabled participation and leadership across housing policy and practice. Allie spearheads community engagement initiatives for The Kelsey’s housing pipeline, as well as mobilizes people with and without disabilities to advance disability-forward housing solutions at the state and federal level. 

Image description: A smiling, brown-skinned Mexican/Peruvia, Black hair, Wearing a black T-shirt. He is pictured against a white background.

Nicholas Sanchez identifies as Deaf Interior Designer, Consultant for The Kelsey, and processing to be a real estate agent. He was born and raised in San Francisco Bay area and now lives in Los Angeles when he graduated from the California State University of Northridge with a Bachelor of Science in Interior Design.

Cam Luck is currently a UX Manager and Lead at Google leading products in Google Cloud. Cam went to school at Georgia Tech where they studied Computational Media (A fancy term for HCI) and currently live and work in the Seattle area.

Agenda:

  • Webinar kicks off at 12:00 PM
  • Panel discussion begins at 12:05 PM
  • Q&A from attendees from 12:40-1:00 PM

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This discussion will be recorded and shared out to registrants afterward. There will be an ASL interpreter and automated captioning will be available. If you have additional access needs, please specify when you register.

We enforce a Code of Conduct at our events. Please take a minute and read it through.