Universal Design Toolkit: An interview with Rosemarie Rossetti
Rosemarie Rossetti is a powerful, internationally known speaker, trainer, consultant, writer, and publisher who walks her talk. On June 13, 1998, Rossetti’s life was transformed when a 3 1/2 ton tree came crashing down on her and paralyzed her from the waist down. Author of the Universal Design Toolkit and Take Back Your Life! Together with her husband she designed, built, and lives in the Universal Design Living Laboratory. This is the top-rated universal design home in North America with three national universal design certifications. Universal Design Living Laboratory Learn More Helpful LinksAmerican Housing Survey referenced in the episode.Universal Design Living Laboratory for virtual tour, many photographs, and additional references.Universal Design Toolkit free chapter.Rosemarie Speaks website for additional information on consulting with Rosemarie Rossetti. Nichole Kain Environmental GerontologistOTR/L, MA, CAPS About your host: Nichole Kain is a residential universal design and aging-in-place consultant, her work is based in solid research and guided by a deep appreciation for the power of place and importance of personal choice. Nichole is the founder of Home and Place Project. With a background in occupational therapy, environmental gerontology, and training as a certified aging in place specialist, she helps homeowners, researchers, and business owners go beyond ADA to create beautiful and inclusive environments.To connect, collaborate, or just learn more about Nichole and her work, please visit: www.homeandplaceproject.com Want to be social? You can also find Nichole on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn Podcast TranscriptAPA Citation:Kain, N. (Host) & Rossetti, R. (Guest). (2019, March 1). Universal Design Toolkit: An interview with Rosemarie Rossetti [Audio podcast]. Retrieved from https://www.homeandplaceproject.com/podcast/2018/11/26/an-Interview-with-rosemarie-rossetti-universal-design-tool-kit Intro by Nichole: [upbeat banjo music]Hi, I’m your host Nichole Kain and you’re listening to the Home and Place Podcast where I translate theory to practice and create cross-discipline conversations about aging and the importance of place. I’m so glad you’re here.Today I’m talking with Dr Rosemarie Rossetti.Rosemarie is a powerful, internationally known speaker, trainer, consultant, writer, and publisher who walks her talk. On June 13, 1998, Rossetti’s life was transformed when a 3 1/2 ton tree came crashing down on her and paralyzed her from the waist down. Author of the Universal Design ToolKit and Take Back Your Life! Together with her husband she designed, built, and lives in the Universal Design Living Laboratory. This is the top-rated universal design home in North America with three national universal design certifications.[end music] Nichole: Rosemarie thank you thank you thank you so much for joining me today. This is a true honor to have you on the show! Rosemarie: You're welcome I appreciate you inviting me.Nichole: You have an incredible incredible story and I'd love for you to share your personal story and your mission, and really how you got into this work of Universal Design.Rosemarie: It all started from an accident in June of 98. My husband and I were out for a bicycle ride celebrating our wedding anniversary and a 7000 pound tree fell on the bike trail right on top of me and I was instantly paralyzed (paralyzed incomplete) with a need to use a manual wheelchair for my mobility (and now it's been 20 years post injury) as I looked ahead and discovered that there are many features of homes that cannot accommodate people like myself. Coming home with the realization for the first time in a wheelchair what a perspective that was to realize how difficult life is even rolling on the carpet in my home and trying to reach things. You’re trying to take a shower and not being able to get into the door. So, Nichole, that is really the story in itself. No one can predict when something like that going to happen, but why don't we design things right from the beginning?? Nichole: Oh, you're speaking my language! So often when I go to talk with students I'll share some statistics and stories. I know that that we since we speak such a similar language, you find very powerful statistics as well about our society or and what housing is available. Could you talk about that a little bit?Rosemarie: I think the most surprising is that only 1% of US housing units have these Universal Design features. And there are five basic ones that came out in the American Housing Survey in 2011. Those are simple things like a no-step entry. A way to get into the home, be it through the front door, the side door, or the garage for somebody in a wheelchair, or someone in a walker, that lives there or is visiting there. So that’s the first, a no-step entry.The second one is single floor living, so we have all of the bathroom and kitchen and bedrooms on that first floor. The next is the extra extra-wide doorways and hallways and we're looking at a 36 inch wide door and (at least) a 42 inch wide hallway. The accessible electric controls to plug things in and the light switches that are accessible and the lever style door handles and faucet handles. So of those 5 features, only 1% of US housing units have these in place. And then when you look at housing, more than 90% of US housing units are inaccessible for people with disabilities. And that came from the Journal of American Planning Association in 2008. So we’re looking at homes that just don’t work. The features of accessibility just aren’t there. Nichole: And people will then say to me, “Wait a second. Isn’t there ADA? Doesn’t that relate to housing?” What do you say to them?Rosemarie: Well, ADA isn’t about private homes at all.Nichole: That’s right!Rosemarie: ADA is for the public spaces. In terms of senior living and assisted living, of course. Or if it’s a housing project that’s funded through federal funding, then yes. But it has nothing to do with controlling residential. And ADA is rather limited, so if I were to build a home right now and build it to ADA compliance, my shower would only be 3 feet by 3 feet, and that would not be comfortable for me at all! So ADA is the minimum requirements, and again it is not a law for residential construction unless it is federally funded in some way.Nichole: Right. And I think that, when I go out and talk with people, that is one piece that is really missing. They say, “But I thought we had ADA. Doesn’t that help?” And the answer is No. So, what does help?I want to now take a deep dive into something that you’ve researched and created which is called the Universal Design ToolKit. I want to go back to your house, you have an amazing house and I will go back to that in a minute, but I want to focus first on your Universal Design ToolKit. What happens is that people like us will go out there and say, “Okay, this is why you need to build this way, here is how you can build this way.” But, really the people doing the work (day in and day out) it is hard to find time to go to conferences and learn about this. It is hard to find time to watch a video and learn about this. But you’ve created something that designers and occupational therapists can just pick-up when designing a home from scratch, or even remodel something for an individual. I’d love for you to talk more about your Universal Design ToolKit, starting with the research that went into this. Rosemarie: Well, the research team from building our home (as a result of the frustration from the previous home) my husband and I worked with a very extensive design team to create our new home. Which we’ve lived in now since 2012. It’s the Universal Design Living Laboratory. And anyone can go to our website (www.udll.com). So the research for the Universal Design ToolKit is from the Universal Design Living Laboratory, having worked as the general contractors, we are the builders, and our design team and our architect. We have worked hard and long, it is practical, it’s not just theory. We built this home! And then the ToolKit documents how we did it, with full color photographs, and lots of important space planning dimensions. That chapter itself is worth its weight in the book. It talks about how to create kitchens and bathrooms and entrances, so that people will have independence and livability for their lifetime. Nichole: Something that I’m a huge advocate for, which is one of the reasons I created this podcast in the first place, is to foster cross-disciplinary conversations about aging and the importance of place. Can you talk about your interdisciplinary team that you pulled together? And why that was so beneficial? Rosemarie: We had a whole team of the designers including a landscape architect, a building architect, we had a feng shui consultant with us that works with the architect. We had an overall interior designer, we had a kitchen and bath interior designer (who specialized in Universal Design), we had a lighting designer, and then we had over 200 contributing companies, or sponsoring companies, that gave us products and services in order to build our home; and some of these companies had their own interior design team (such as Kohler working with us on the design of all the Kohler products). We also had Kraftmade, who was the contributor of all the cabinetry, they had their design team also on this project. So we did a lot on the front end making sure design was going to be as functional as beautiful, for a luxury custom home, and that it all blended together. Nichole: How did you find these people to pull together for your team?Rosemarie: The interior designer had previously done two additional houses for me in the past and was my best friend, so that was easy. The architect we interviewed, I found a lot of my intuition said higher this man. He had designed senior living and residential, and he was a wonderful man to work with. Kohler we’ve always known as great company and we saw their products at the International Builders Show, as well as Kraftmaid. Also during the International Builders Show, we talked with Mary Jo Peterson during one of her presen
