Enability: How Architecture Can Enable the Disabled

Abstract

Enability is designing with empathy from the very beginning of a design. It incorporates design strategies for a variety of disabilities, as well as tackling the difficulties that are known to disproportionately affect those with disabilities, such as employment and access to childcare. It features a community center, located in Rochester, Minnesota, that incorporates a full restaurant and childcare center with the goal of providing both services as well as employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities in the area. By considering as many aspects as possible it is hoped that this community center can be an example of how architects can move beyond the ADA requirements and choose to truly reimagine how the disability experience is transformed through their designs.