Universal Design Pioneer Patricia Moore Coaches WMU Students on Aging in Place

Patricia Moore — the designer widely credited as a founder of universal design and the influence behind OXO Good Grips utensils, redesigned mammography machines and Depends undergarments — spent a week at Western Michigan University in October, reviewing student prototypes and delivering a public lecture on inclusive design.

The visit anchored WMU's Designing Independence: Aging in Place Symposium, hosted by the Richmond Institute for Design and Innovation with the Office of Research and Innovation, the College of Health and Human Services, the Sammons Center and the Kohler company. It brought together students, faculty, industry professionals and community partners for an intensive interdisciplinary week.

"What's being taught here is exemplary. This is a very strong program, which is why I'm here," Moore says. "The essential factor is the humanity piece, and Western Michigan University students have it in spades."

What did Moore tell the students?

Her own story explains the stakes. Moore grew up watching her grandparents struggle with the built environment — her grandmother couldn't open the family's refrigerator. As a young professional at the country's top design firm, she pushed back against exclusion by design and got a response that became her life's work.

"When I would raise my hand [in design meetings], everyone would roll their eyes and say, 'Pattie, we don't design for "those people."' And that became my battle cry," Moore says.

She also praised the program's industry ties, calling Kohler "one of the exemplars globally, leading this drive of universality and inclusivity" in healthy homes that serve all consumers with equity across the lifespan.

What are the teams building?

The symposium sits inside a semester-long project that pairs product design students with peers from interior architecture and design, occupational therapy, physical therapy, engineering, gerontology, and blindness and low vision studies. Each team owns one zone of the home — bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen, or ingress and egress — and has spent the fall researching, interviewing potential clients, sketching prototypes and consulting mentors from faculty and Kohler.

Midway through, teams presented their progress to Moore and the mentors. The concepts include:

• A "rock" shower wall providing stability, grip and storage
• A bedside pill dispensing system
• Moveable kitchen components with accessible storage and refrigeration
• A smart door entry and alarm system with track lighting
• A recliner with moveable wings and accessory compartments

"The goal is not simply to design products for 'older people' but to explore how products, spaces, services, and technology can support independence and dignity across a much broader range of abilities and life stages," says Michael Kahwaji, faculty coordinator of industrial design at WMU.

Why does the interdisciplinary mix matter?

Delaney Decker, a health care services and rehabilitation sciences major on the living room team, briefed the designers on what her patients and their caregivers face getting into and out of chairs. "It's really enlightening, and it's giving me a lot of hope for the future of assistive technology," she says, noting the experience will strengthen her occupational therapy graduate applications.

Dr. Cara Masselink, associate professor of occupational therapy and a faculty mentor, puts it plainly: "I 100% believe that we're stronger and better together when we share minds and share ideas and come from different scopes of practices to collaborate."

For the students, the reviews stung a little and taught a lot. "You're really on the right track; I'm very excited about this," Moore told Ava Ivkovich's team, while pushing them toward more research on the recliner concept. "It's such a dream," Ivkovich says. "You're talking with someone who has so much industry experience. It just broadens your scope of what to think about as a designer."

Teams will keep developing their concepts through the fall semester — and Moore's October masterclass suggests the ideas that survive her feedback may follow the OXO route from classroom sketch to kitchen drawer.