019: Universal Design: Creating a Home that Welcomes Everyone – Rosemarie Rossetti

Marty Stevens Heebner:
Universal design. If you haven't heard that term before, you need to know about it now, because it's coming to buildings and homes near you, if it already hasn't. Fortunately, we have a true expert on this episode who will fully explain universal design and accessibility and why it's needed from the start. Moving your mom or your dad or yourself isn't just about moving things from one place to another. It is much more complicated than that, as are so many things having to do with later life.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
How To Move Your Mom (and Still be on Speaking Terms Afterward) provides in-depth conversations with professionals, older adults and their family members who share their stories with warmth, understanding and humor. I'm your host, Marty Stevens Heebner, and here you'll find answers to many of your questions as well as different perspectives that I hope will inform and inspire you. Rosemarie Rossetti, thank you so much for being here with me today.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Oh, it's a pleasure. Thanks for inviting me.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
Oh, I had to. After hearing you speak, I'm so glad you're here to talk about all the wonderful work you do. Let me tell you a little bit about Rosemarie. Dr. Rosemarie Rosetti is an internationally renowned speaker, consultant, writer, so many books, and publisher who walks her talk. In 1998, Rosemarie's life was transformed suddenly by an accident.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
Paralyzed now from the waist down with a spinal cord injury, Rosemarie looked deep within herself and found new strength and new resolve. Rosemarie and her husband, Mark Leader, are on a mission to create a future with homes that are accessible and wonderfully livable for all. They've built a national demonstration home in Columbus, Ohio called the Universal Design Living Laboratory.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
Their elegant home has earned three national certifications and it is the highest-rated universal design home in North America. You need to go to www.udll.com, UDLL for Universal Design Living Laboratory, because it is so beautiful. That was quite an undertaking for you and your husband.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Yes, monumental. Herculean. We had no idea going into it how hard it was going to be. It was really a 10-year project.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
We're going to have to talk more about that, because I was wondering how long that took. But first I want to ask you, since your grandparents had passed before you were born, tell me about your favorite memory growing up with your parents.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
I oftentimes look at the old photos when I was about six years old and there's one that just resonates in my mind around our Christmas tree at home with my older brothers and my father and mother. It was very rare that our family could be together. My father owned a small carryout and it was our family business. We had seven days a week we were open and the family was working all the time.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
But on Christmas, that one holiday, he was able to close the carryout and be home with the family. So that photograph of the family around the tree and all the toys that I got that Christmas, they're very cherished toys. I remember that day and I remember that photograph. It's probably one of my favorite photos.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
Oh, what a remarkable memory. So beautiful. Thank you for talking about that. Let's talk about you as an adult now in your own home. Specifically for our listeners, talk about the focus of your work.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
I am a universal design and accessibility design consultant. I work with architects and designers. I work with the builders. I work with realtors, I also work with consumers that would like to have a forever home or a home that will be more accommodating for them now and in the future. In addition to home design, I'm also working on workplace design to make sure that the workplaces are more inclusive using universal design strategies.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
I have a lot of different things that I do in the world of inclusive design, be it, the built environment in the workplace or in the homes, the condos and the apartments, and now I'm branching out into cities, helping the city to be more inclusive with all the attractions and all the hotels and all the restaurants and the transportation. To take a look at what can that city do to be more inclusive?
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Then the meeting professionals, what can they do to make sure when they're planning meetings and events that they have accommodated people both on the onsite meetings and events, as well as the all too typical virtual meetings and events. I also take my motivational program, learning lessons after my injury, the motivational program is about being resilient and adapting to change. I have a lot of different things that have become-
Marty Stevens Heebner:
You're busy.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
... part of my profession because of the '98 accident when I was suddenly paralyzed from the waist down, riding my bike. Everything just took a different path to be able to find a home that was going to be accessible. We could not, so we ended up designing and building one, and everything just started an evolution from that point on where people would ask me, "Can you do this?"
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Then other times I would like, "Why didn't I think of that myself?" And just start expanding the business. Of course during this pandemic, there weren't a lot of speaking opportunities so I had to think about more consulting. What could I do to consult in the design world? That took on a whole other perspective.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
It is remarkable to me how you came out from your accident with such a sense of purpose. Obviously there are the practical needs that you had after your accident, but what really sparked this idea of really making universal design beautiful and getting builders to start thinking about that from the ground up?
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Well, it had to be beautiful. It had to be functional. It had to have form. So when we were designing our home, we had a huge design team and an architect, and everyone knew that this was going to be a national demonstration home and garden. That it would be seen by people around the world. It would be in articles, I would be speaking about it.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
So they all wanted this house to really stand as a model of excellence, showcasing not only universal and accessible design, but also environmentally friendly, energy efficient and safe for everyone that was going to be using it as a model to say, "Here it is. It's beautiful. It's not institutional and it's very sustainable too."
Marty Stevens Heebner:
Not everybody knows what universal design means. Can you describe that, please?
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Think of it as a concept of being usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible without any specialized design. Design it right from the beginning, having no-step entrances, wider doorways, different heights of counters in the kitchen, looking at product design also. For example, the toilet seat, how high is it from the floor? Making products work for equitable use and ease of use in terms of physical effort and intuitive in their use. It's not only the design of the spaces, but it's the products also.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
People have this image in their heads of things like grab bars, ramps, being very industrial-looking and not very pretty. They could be extraordinarily beautiful. I have to say, there are mornings when I would love to have a good old grab bar, couple of them to help me in the bathroom getting around.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
That's why I think it's so brilliant to start, for lack of a better term, pushing designers and developers to just start doing this from the get-go, because a sloping entrance to your home, you don't even have to think of it as a ramp because it doesn't look like one. But it's simply without steps and they can be so beautiful with a little curve to it. It just looks like a natural part of the home and it just makes so much more sense.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
It's a natural pathway. It's just like the commercial spaces. Build them at level grade so you can get in, if it's at all possible. Now, we know that some of the lots are not going to be easy to work with and they have to be a gentler pathway to get in to make it no step, but there's usually a solution available for homes. We know that it's required for businesses.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
The Americans with Disabilities Act has been out now since 1990. That is what is compliant. There must be no-step entrances to everything that's built now, so why don't cities require all new construction for residences also to have at least one entrance that is step-free?
Marty Stevens Heebner:
That makes so much sense. A previous guest on this episode, Alison MacCracken, of Sotheby's Realty, she does a lot of development too. With the homes that she's developing and building, she makes them universally accessible. It just makes so much more sense for everybody, especially with say walk-in showers. How many times have I stubbed my toe walking into a shower because of that annoying little threshold? It's safer.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Everyone appreciates it. You're going to start seeing more of that in the hotel designs. Then once you go to hotels and then you experience this gracious shower with no step and the water staying in and you've got great lighting in there and you've got an adjustable shower head and you've got a seat there to shave your legs or someone who's pregnant that just prefers to sit and shower or showering small children, it's just so much more accommodating to have a shower that is curb less.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
It makes so much more sense. Current buildings that exist do tend to lack accessibility, but the thought of taking on the design and construction of your own home seems so daunting. How did you two decide one day that you were going to do this and gathering that team around you to create your beautiful Universal Design Living Laboratory?
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Well, it wasn't our idea to make it a national demonstration home. It came from a mastermind group in January of 2005. We had been meeting with this group of fellow professional speakers and consultants and writers and we had told them that we were planning to build a home and that we had been discussing with different manufacturers, things that we wanted in the home, and it was their idea.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
They said, "Why don't you make it a national model? Why don't you get sponsors? Then make it green too. Then why don't you build your business around it and write books about it, write articles about it, speak around the country?" It was like, "Are you kidding me? You guys have this big audacious idea, I can't imagine how we would execute that." That was in 2005. That's the timing of Mark and I looking at this idea and their insistence they would help us.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
We had to find a marketing person to help us to understand, how do you approach manufacturers to be a sponsor of a house that we're going to be living in? We had no idea. We had an architect to design it. It was an amazing project led by Robert August, who was our marketing strategist to put the website together and to teach us how to have a conversation with manufacturers and then to go to the International Builders' Show and meet with these people.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
We were very selective of what products were going into the home. It was obviously a great marketing decision for them to partner with us. Your product was selected because it fits the criteria of the product design and the accessibility and the green building.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
As you were dealing with your home following your accident, what were the most frustrating things for you?
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Everything was frustrating. Getting into the home when I first came home from the hospital, Mark had to actually lift me in the three steps at the front door. There was no way to get into our house when I first got home. Then getting into the foyer, there was a little section of hardwood. Then the rest of the house was carpeted and it was so thick I couldn't roll the wheelchair on it, so Mark had to push me around until we got into the kitchen where there was a vinyl flooring so at least I could roll in the kitchen and nowhere else in the house.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Then it was like, "Okay. I'd like a glass of water." I opened a cabinet door and I couldn't reach the glasses. "Okay. Mark, get me a glass." I took the glass over to the sink and I couldn't get to the faucet to get water out to put it in the glass. This was so frustrating, so depressing. The whole house was just not going to accommodate me.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
The width of the doors, the lack of privacy in the bathroom, the inability to take a shower, forget about the whirlpool tub and it's everything in that house was aggravating and intensifying my disability. I knew that something had to change.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
It's almost like your home became your enemy.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
It was not compliant with what I needed. Of course, I was really in a bad way. I had a neck brace, a body brace, a rented wheelchair, very weak in terms of I was feeding myself. Now I was starting to write with a pen. I couldn't move anything from the waist down. To get in and out of a rented hospital bed, I needed a sliding transfer board. I needed 24 hours of someone there to navigate, to move me, to transfer me, to dress me, to shower and to take me to physical therapy three days a week that was a long recovery.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
I can only imagine the feeling of isolation, especially because you're clearly a go-getter. You enjoy engaging with people. So often when you're used to your independence and doing everything in a moment by yourself, that dependency must have just worn on you.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Yeah. I don't know if you've got a husband or a spouse or any of you listening to say, who would be your caregiver? My husband, Mark, was a wonderful, supportive, loving husband. We'd been married only three years. He saved my life when the tree fell on the bike path, so he was just in total grief and total depression because I was the one injured and he was not injured. He led the rescue.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
He stopped working and took care of me. His income then ceased, my income ceased. The bills are still coming. What in the heck are we going to do now? We did hire a personal care attendant so that she would be there during the weekday so Mark could go to work. Then she would transfer me into her car and take me to physical therapy three days a week, do our laundry, do our cooking, do our cleaning. Somebody had to do it.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
When you first moved into your home, this beautiful home that you built, what did that give you to be able to do all those things by yourself?
Rosemarie Rossetti:
This was May of 2012 so we're looking at 10 years ago. I distinctly remember when the moving van brought in our furniture and how I just zipped through this house. It was like, there's no carpeting. It's all hardwood flooring, all porcelain tile in the bathroom, all great spaces. I could reach things in the cabinets. I could get things in and out of the oven. I could wash dishes in the dishwasher. I could get dressed. I could shower. Everything was set up so that it would be totally independent for my use and my husband also.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
What a transformation that must have been. Oh, you must have felt so great.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Yes. It was a jubilation beyond. Of course, I was here during construction. It wasn't like, "Oh, I get to see the house for the first time." Mark was here every day. He was the general contractor and so I would come very often to see what was going on, to get my opinion of things in terms of where does the center island go in the kitchen? Is there enough space to do a 360 degree turn? How high do you want these grab bars? Where do you want the ironing board? There are a lot of decisions that were finalized on site.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
My understanding is after you designed your own beautiful home, then you started designing others. How did you start getting those projects going?
Rosemarie Rossetti:
We had builders here during construction and lots of other visitors. In 2014, when the house was finally finished, we opened to the public. We've had over 3,500 people physically in our home so far. That's how the story got out, is people were coming here, touring it, builders were coming here. Then all of a sudden we had the opportunity to have conversations with builders.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
What about your models? Would you like us to help you create more accessibility in your current design? We would reach out to families that would come here saying, "We are about to build. Would you work with us?" Then when I'm speaking and they'll come to me later and say, "I am a large developer in Texas, I want you to come see my model now and make it better as I'm working to develop more land and more models."
Rosemarie Rossetti:
It just kept coming from people in the audience, people who would come to see the home, as well as by them searching on the internet and finding my website.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
It's just a friendlier home for everybody, especially if you want to age in place, and so many people do, especially baby boomers. You got to start thinking about these things now. They're so beautiful. They're not the kinds you see in hospitals. Is there any kind of resistance you get when you're talking to developers and designers?
Rosemarie Rossetti:
The resistance is they keep thinking it's going to take more land to build universal design. Land is at a premium and they want to build something on a smaller lot. They think it's only ranch style. That's the misconception. It'd be great if you put first floor living at least a master suite and master bathroom.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
But there are other ways to make the home accessible in a two-story in terms of some additional elevator consideration where you would put in two closets, one on the first floor and one on the second floor, right above each other, so that if you wanted an elevator later, you take those closet and convert it to elevator shaft. Or maybe you need a stair lift.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
There's other ways to get to a second floor. Don't always think that universal design is going to add more cost. Those are misconceptions.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
Especially if you build it that way from the ground up. Now, what do you love about what you do? There are so many things I can tell just hearing you talk about it, but I'm curious what you'd say.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
I love the feedback that I get from people, how they have hope that's restored, how they've taken pictures. They're so excited as they leave this house with fresh ideas for their projects. Be it commercial or their own residence. I'm also enamored by feedback from my audience. When I get done and I see a standing ovation of architects that I had last week in Chicago, I'm like, "Are you kidding me?"
Rosemarie Rossetti:
I had over 200 international architects standing on their feet after I presented and then a line of architects waiting at the stage to talk to me afterwards. Then I left the room and started rolling around the convention center and people were stopping me, "I loved your presentation." That's what I love, is the feedback is positive.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
You've really inspired them, and architects are not an easy crowd, so getting a standing ovation from them is really remarkable. Congratulations.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Even getting them to the presentation. I'm thinking the last day, 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday, "Who in the world is going to show up?" They started coming in at eight o'clock. I'm like, "This is odd." At 8:30, I had no more seats left. They really wanted to hear me, or they wanted the credit for their certifications.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
Well, yes, but I'm sure there were other courses they could have taken or what have you. What's the toughest part of your job?
Rosemarie Rossetti:
It's so many demands on me right now, especially since the pandemic has eased, where I am now invited to go somewhere and speak, go somewhere and consult, working with clients that have been on hold for two years that are now thinking about, "We're going to have a conference now. We've been waiting."
Marty Stevens Heebner:
What should people ask as they're considering working with you?
Rosemarie Rossetti:
They want to know, how does that work? How do I work with them? Can I work virtually if they live in New York or they're in California? There's no problem working virtually. They send me the plans electronically. We look at them on screen. If they prefer, they can print them and have them delivered to our doorstep. We have lots of virtual meetings with that team if it's the consumer or the interior designer or the architect, and then we'll communicate what changes we're recommending to them.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Otherwise, if they want to come to our home, we invite them to our home. We spread out the plan on the kitchen table. We bring the design team together of their architect, their designer, their family members, and let them see our home and let them take pictures in our home, take measurements in our home. Then as we review their plan, we say, "Here are some suggestions."
Rosemarie Rossetti:
We're another pair of eyes, my husband and I, and it's a wonderful opportunity for them to have not only my eyes from a 4'2" perspective seated in my wheelchair, but my husband who's 6'4" in standing position. Being that he was the builder, he's really good at design and knows how to read architectural plans and knows how to draw architectural plans.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
What's the difference between working with a residential client and a corporate one?
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Yeah. There's a lot of differences in that the Americans with Disabilities Act now comes in play for the commercial. They have to be ADA-compliant in anything commercial. It does not apply to private residences. If we go back now to the corporation that has been ADA-compliant, meeting the minimum standards. We have a proprietary list of over 200 different ideas for more inclusive workplaces, looking at how to get into the building, how to park, the cafeteria, the gym, the conference room, the lighting, the restroom designs.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
What we'll do is take a look at renderings. We'll take a look at floor plans. They may even do a real video tour to help us so we can work around the world with any corporation, looking at their offices, their manufacturing facility, their distribution facility, so that they'll attract more people with disabilities and be more customer service focused for their clients that have disabilities.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
For people who are interested in this, or just curious, what resources can they use to learn more about this? I know you've got a great website.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
The one you've mentioned is the Universal Design Living Laboratory, udll.com. We have a wonderful virtual tour you can take from your desktop, your phone or your tablet, and it's a fun one. We had Google taking over 700 photos and put them together and so you can see our home from any electronic device. We had the cat loose that day and the photographer said, "That's not a problem. We'll let the cat out."
Rosemarie Rossetti:
She's in many of the photos, her name is Kiko. She's a little orange tabby cat, so you'll see her throughout the house. To support that tour though, the Universal Design Living Laboratory's book is the Universal Design Toolkit. There's a place for you to download a free copy of the Universal Design Toolkit chapter and you're going to get a list of all the universal design features in our home so you can follow that list as you're going through the virtual tour.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
There's also a video tour so that you can follow Mark as he's narrating the house. There's over a hundred articles about our home and about universal design aging in place.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
You really want to look at all these things on the Universal Design Living Laboratory's website, udll.com, because I've looked at them and they're amazing. Plus, you are such a great speaker, Rosemarie, and I think you have a website for that as well.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
Yes. My speaking business, consulting business is simply rosemariespeaks.com. How easy is that?
Marty Stevens Heebner:
That's wonderful, so needed as well. We have all of Rosemarie's contact information on our website, so be sure to go to howtomoveyourmom.com. It has been such a pleasure speaking with you. You're just a warm and wonderful person, and then on top of it, you have such a remarkable story and do such remarkable work. Thank you so much, Rosemarie.
Rosemarie Rossetti:
It's a pleasure working with you, Marty. Thanks for the invitation.
Marty Stevens Heebner:
Thank you so much for listening to How to Move Your Mom (and Still be on Speaking Terms Afterward). Please visit howtomoveyourmom.com for more information about this episode and for additional podcast episodes, featuring other extraordinary guests and conversations. Until next time, this is your very grateful host, Marty Stevens Heebner.