KENT: Where a lifetime of passionate storytelling and advocacy for people with disabilities was born (and a soulmate was discovered)

By 2000, I could see that print journalism would contract severely because of the internet. We wanted a fresh start in Miami. My Kent education prepared me for a life of reinvention as a storyteller.

Everything from thorough researching and sourcing to meeting deadlines and understanding my audience – came from my J-School days. Nothing prepares you to be a quick study – about something you know very little about and in time to write about it authoritatively for a client – than a Kent journalism education

My first position in Miami was as the Senior Urban Policy Advisor to the Chairman of the Miami City Commission. A decade later, I worked in marketing/business development for a series of design firms – including one of the nations’ largest and most award-winning firms.

When I turned 50, I decided to create my own storytelling firm. I advise the dozens of design clients in South Florida, the largest disability non-profit in the U.S. and the largest member organization in America — and its smart growth/land use for real estate research and communications.

 I’m still a reporter. Each year, I publish dozens of long-form articles on design for people with disabilities. I often make the cover of Planning, the magazine of the American Planning Association.

I write about Universal Design, complete streets, accessible transit, inclusive parks and other aspects of making the built environment barrier-free. My articles share best practices on design for all and remind elected and appointed officials that the ADA is federal civil rights legislation for people with disabilities — not a zoning/building code that can be waived by variance. Here’s a few of them:

• Equity and Inclusion: Planning, Zoning and other Land-Use Policy Best Practices to Erase Errors of the Past that Perpetuated Bias and Deepened Inequity (On Common Ground)
• When Inclusive ... Isn’t (strongtowns.org)
• Five Ways to Plan for More Accessible Housing (American Planning Association)
• Inclusion, Equity and Accessibility (National Association of Realtors)

I have headlined several planning and design conferences, speaking about Diversity, Equity and Inclusion – through the lens of accessibility for people with disabilities.

My wife, a lifelong public servant who has been an Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator for 20 years and an architecture lecturer for a decade, and I are creating an in-person and online course on Universal Design for undergraduate and graduate architecture/planning/design students.

For a decade, I have blogged daily about urban design and disability issues. I also post daily to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, sharing advocacy journalism and my healthy living journey – chronicling 140 pounds of weight loss in the past two years.

My advice to Kent Students: make your passion part of your profession and know that the platform evolves, but storytelling always is valuable.

My wish for editors, architects and all people: get over whatever makes you uncomfortable about disability and start creating a world that is inclusive and accessible to all. The CDC reports that one in four U.S. adults – 61 million Americans – have a disability that impacts major life activities. That means disability is mainstream and normal and should be treated as such.

Follow Steve Wright at http://urbantravelandaccessibility.blogspot.com

Twitter: @stevewright64