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A LITTLE MORE than a year ago, what had been a niggling on-and-off stomachache suddenly landed me in the hospital for emergency surgery to treat a bad case of peritonitis. While waking up with a tube down my throat might have been the worst part of the experience, the post-surgical recovery was no picnic either. I had to re-learn how to sit up, stand, walk, manage stairs, and get up and down without bending too much – a long process, due to a large incision in my abdomen that I was told would take months to heal. When I was finally released from the hospital, I stayed with my parents for several weeks, taking advantage of their accessible shower, which did not require me to bend, climb or do odd contortions to use it. Ironically, when my parents had remodeled the bathroom several years before, I was the one who convinced them that they needed an accessible shower – something they initially opposed because "those are for old people." By the time I returned to my own house, I was getting around a bit better. Still, I was thankful for my handshow- er, which I'd actually chosen not so much for my own use, but to make bathing the dogs easier. All of this gave me a new outlook on accessible or Universal Design, and made me wonder why it has taken so long for this concept to gain any kind of mainstream appeal (see related story, Page 38). The problem, of course, is that older baby boomers and matures who view their home as a reflection of themselves don't want to be perceived as old or needing special help, and younger consumers too often assume that these features are for "old people," not considering things like visitability, unexpected accidents or just con- venience benefits. The thing is, this misses the whole point of the "uni- versal" concept – that all people benefit from living spaces designed for safety and ease of use. For instance, my sister recently began looking at replacing her kitchen tile with non-slip flooring, since her budding gymnast daugh- ter tends to forget the "no tumbling in the kitchen" rule. Meanwhile, my friend and her husband, who are 5'10" and 6'2", respectively, and both masters of the take-out dinner, but who inexplicably managed to produce a daughter who is in the bottom five percentile in height and aspires to be on MasterChef Junior, are replacing their kitchen island with a scaled-down version to accom- modate their budding culinary princess. Both of these are examples of Universal Design. Yet for all of the myriad benefits of Universal Design, designers too often face an uphill battle selling these fea- tures to consumers because there's still a stigma that de- signing for accessibility is for seniors and/or disabilities. And while designers need to be leading this movement, some are still hesitant to risk turning their sales presen- tation into a "downer" by bringing up things that might make clients uncomfortable – like the idea of aging, or the possibility of an accident, illness or loss of ability at some point down the road. Of course some designers are embracing aging-in- place design as a specialty niche to differentiate their firms (see related story, Page 22). And, with the large baby boomer population, it's not a bad area to build a specialty around. But Universal Design can be so much more than a small niche. It can encompass design not only for older people or those who are disabled, but also short people, tall people, overweight people, those who are nearsighted and sometimes leave their glasses in the other room, kids who tumble in the kitchen, pets, the person who throws their knee out doing marathon training or the girl who ignores the niggling stomachache and ends up with a 12- inch incision down her abdomen. Good design focuses on safety, accessibility, livability and ease of use for all. And that kind of universal design will always be in vogue. ▪ " Universal Design encompasses design not only for older or disabled people, but also short people, tall people, those who are overweight, kids, pets, and those who just want added safety and convenience." The Mainstreaming of UD September 2016 • KitchenBathDesign.com 7 EDITORIAL ® Like us: Facebook.com/ KitchenBathDesignNews Follow us on Twitter: @KBDN Join the discussion: LinkedIn.com/groups/7023676 Follow us on Instagram: @kbdn_sola PUBLISHER Paul DeGrandis PUBLISHER EMERITUS Eliot Sefrin EDITOR Janice Anne Costa MANAGING EDITOR Anita Shaw ASSOCIATE EDITOR Ashley Lapin Olian GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Patrick O'Toole CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Kim Berndtson Joe Dowd Jamie Gold, CKD, CAPS Elizabeth Richards Denise Vermeulen COLUMNISTS Ellen Cheever, CMKBD, ASID, CAPS Denise Grothouse Leslie Hart Bruce Kelleran, CKD, CPA Ken Peterson, CKD Mary Jo Peterson, CMKBD, CAPS, CLIPP Sarah Reep, CMKBD, ASID, CMG, CAPS, IIDA Eric Schimelpfenig, AKBD CREATIVE & PRODUCTION DIRECTOR Tracy Hegg CIRCULATION MANAGER Mike Serino READER SERVICE MANAGER Jeff Heine DIGITAL PROGRAMS MANAGER Tim Steingraber PROJECTS MANAGER Heidi Riedl Copyright © 2016 by SOLA Group Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be produced in any form, including electronically, without written permission from the publisher of Kitchen & Bath Design News . JANICE COSTA EDITOR