Creating Inclusive Spaces: The Bedrock of Good Design

Just seven days before the Architecting Inclusion workshop for institutional architects that I was planning for 9.9 Education, I discovered a critical gap: I had not budgeted for essential disability accommodations, such as live transcription and sign language interpreters. There was no time for panic; I absolutely had to find a solution as this oversight risked undermining the very purpose of the workshop I had spent six months meticulously planning. Ignoring it wasn’t an option, as doing so would have gone against my core values.

This situation underscored a challenge I face in building a new practice area at 9.9 Education, focusing on disability inclusion in higher education. I am constantly exploring what to focus on next. Six months ago, I found an answer: an accessibility and Universal Design workshop tailored for university architects. 

The workshop, Architecting Inclusion: Transforming Campus Places, held on November 15, 2024, at the India Habitat Center, was designed to create actionable steps toward making educational institutions more accessible. Ensuring disability accommodations at an event open to all was non-negotiable. Yet, somehow, I had missed budgeting for it.

Owning the Oversight

With only six days left before the workshop, I was now fully committed to ensuring nothing would compromise the workshop’s message of accessibility. I had to move quickly to secure live transcription services and sign language interpreters. A fortunate budget surplus allowed for these accommodations, though they took a sizable portion out of the remaining funds. Still, I now had the means to transform my commitment from aspiration into reality. The logistical scramble became a stark lesson in commitment—proving that when something truly matters to us, we'll move mountains to make it happen. 

This last-minute chaos highlighted that accessibility isn't just a theoretical concept; it’s a principle for which, we must be willing to face a modicum of inconvenience, even if it means undergoing stress and uncertainty. Creating an inclusive space wasn’t merely a goal, it was the heart of my mission. My experience highlighted a key takeaway of the upcoming workshop: accessibility needs to be planned from the start. 

The Event: Practicing What We Preach

Workshop day arrived and while the audience listened to the speakers, they also seemed captivated by watching the tireless interpreters and the transcription in action. It’s not about checking bureaucratic boxes, but about ensuring everyone present feels welcome and empowered to participate.

As the day progressed, it became clear that accessibility isn’t rocket science reserved for developed countries alone. While it comes with a cost, it’s an investment comparable to standard audio-visual equipment we take for granted. Accessibility just requires attention to detail, genuine effort, and a real commitment to making things work for everyone. It’s about removing physical barriers and providing individualized reasonable accommodations, enabling people with disabilities to participate fully.  

Moving Forward

Good intentions mean little without concrete action backing them up. Turns out, the workshop embodied its own lesson: accessibility is the bedrock of good design. Moving forward, accommodations shall be integrated into the budget from the outset–not as an afterthought, but as a core planning principle. It’s a matter of basic logic: just as you wouldn’t build a house on shaky ground, why would you create an event or spaces that don’t work for everyone?

Sometimes, it takes an oversight to reveal what really matters. As a person with a disability myself, my lapse was particularly telling–if I could miss something this fundamental, imagine how easily it’s overlooked by those who don’t live this reality daily. This experience turned into a powerful reminder: when we commit to accessibility, we find a way to make it happen. And that gives me hope for our educational institutions–not just that they can become more inclusive, but that they must. Because true accessibility isn’t an add-on–but simply what everything else should be built upon. 

Educational institutions have enormous responsibility–they must look beyond just making surface-level changes to reimagine how they create learning environments. Before they can look beyond surface-level barriers, however, they must ensure students with disabilities have access to their buildings. The Architecting Inclusion workshop got that conversation started.