Registration Closes on March 17, 2025 at 9:00 AM. Please contact Gabby at [email protected] if you need to register after this time.
Earn 1.0 LU|HSW
Architects include required accessibility features on projects as required by code and law but often our building users need us to think beyond basic accommodations. Per our code of ethics E.S. 1.5, we are even called to “design buildings and spaces that will enhance and facilitate human dignity and the health, safety, and welfare of the individual and the public.” Taking a question-and-answer approach, we’ll investigate the fertile areas for growing accessibility radically. Panelists Olivia Asuncion, Rachel Wiesbrock, and Bess Williamson come from a variety of perspectives on accessibility from practice to academia. Together, their knowledge and work compel us to rethink how we design a more accessible world.
Meet the Speakers
Olivia Mae M. Asuncion, AIA, has oriented her career path towards building accessible communities and advocating for inclusive design as a licensed architect and design researcher from Oakland, California.
She is currently a Project Architect at Quattrocchi Kwok Architects, working on K-12 educational facilities. Her past works include construction and property management of various Bay Area non-profit organization projects, including Berkeley’s universally-designed Ed Robert Campus, and the design and construction of public safety buildings, public sector offices and community spaces.
Rachel Wiesbrock is an Accessibility Specialist at LCM Architects in Chicago who brings a passion for integrating inclusive design into all aspects of the built environment. Her experiences with a physical disability give her a unique awareness of physical barriers, and her architectural training bestows her with the technical knowledge to contribute thoughtful solutions to remediate access inequities. While pursuing her Bachelor of Architecture at Illinois Institute of Technology, Rachel began advocating for inclusive design through conference keynote speeches and interactive design workshops with the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) on the local, national, and international levels and has continued to grow her advocacy efforts in the professional realm. Along with her full-time job, Rachel is also currently serving as the VALUE At-Large Director in the AIA’s National Associates Committee.
Dr. Bess Williamson is Associate Professor of Design Studies at North Carolina State University. Her research focuses on inequities in design, particularly the history of disability activism that redesigned norms of 20th-century architecture and industrial design. She is the author of Accessible America: A History of Disability and Design and co-editor, with Elizabeth Guffey, of Making Disability Modern: Design Histories.
AIA Members / Allied Members: Free
Assoc. AIA Members / Students: Free
Non-Members: $30