Oh my goodness so many thoughts! You have expressed this so well and it makes me want to get out my sketchbook and go back to trying to design the ultimate home.

The thing is… places designed for disability inclusion feel better for everyone. My parents’ hardware store used to be in two old buildings with a door cut in the mutual wall. Counting storage areas, it was on 8 different levels. (Not 8 stories high! Just 8 different elevation changes.) When they moved it to the old liquor commission outside of town, it became 1 level. The relief! Work became so much easier. (Way less fun though. I grew up in the old store and it was totally amazing to play in. And I only just learned there was a second hidden stairwell in the kitchenette! How did I miss that?)

“Universal Design” indeed. Maybe add some crawlspaces, trapdoors, ladders, or secret hideaways for the kids. 😉

What I find so frustrating is that the world deliberately functions to make people uncomfortable, then exploit us or sells us the solution. Cosmetics, plastic surgery, and fashion are the obvious offenders. But if you eat in a casino (Weird Al was performing- best concert I’ve ever attended!) you will observe how the back of the seat is designed to make you lean over your plate, the table is subtly too high, making you want to shovel in your food and get out, the view is of the VLTs, and the most prominent part of the breakfast buffet is the soft serve ice cream machines. The eggs and beans took two laps around the buffet to find. Even grocery stores with their harsh lighting, loud music, high shelves, and jarring packaging are designed to make you anxious instead of mindful so you buy too much of things you wouldn’t have chosen had you thought about it and get out of there. My local store just redesigned so instead of flow to the back of the store where the milk is (🙄), you now hit a wall of chips and cheesies that you have to deliberately navigate around to get to the milk aisle. And on the other side is cereal- more junk, more stress. (Cereal used to be in the middle- you could just skip it.)

So while old buildings were built by myriad people who were likely just trying to minimize effort and material use, many of the barriers today are deliberate capitalist constructs to make us uncomfortable, insecure, and vulnerable.

…I think I wandered from your point. But now I can’t remember because the thoughts got flowing and I can’t refer back to your essay. 😝

Anyhow. Good morning from Nova Scotia! May you sleep well. I need to get dressed and go to the farmers market. 😉