Challenging Barriers: Architects with Disabilities Share Their Lived Experience

In this panel discussion, architects with disabilities will speak about their life experience. Some have been disabled since a young age; others have developed disabilities as professionals in the discipline. In addition to discussing lived experience in the profession, the panelists will also discuss the education and training of architects. When does the selection process of architecture school—and the assumptions about the mandatory abilities required in practice—start to determine who we see in practice?

This event will be in-person and online. If you need specific accommodations to join this program, please contact us so we may prepare – [email protected].

Speakers:
Karen Braitmayer, FAIA, Founder and Managing Principal, Studio Pacifica
Chris Downey, AIA, Principal, Architecture for the Blind
David Gissen, Class of 1972 Professor of Architecture and Director of PhD Program, Yale University; Author of The Architecture of Disability
Rachel Updegrove, Lab Planner, HERA laboratory planners
Richard Dougherty, Executive Director of Architecture and Facilities, Gallaudet University

About the Speakers:
Karen Braitmayer is the founder and managing principal of Studio Pacifica. Under her leadership and direction, the firm has grown in stature and scope over the 20-plus years. Early in her career, it occurred to Braitmayer that—as an architect and a wheelchair user—it was possible for her to make a unique contribution to the field. Her professional focus on accessibility and her advocacy efforts for inclusion certainly did just that. As a registered architect, Braitmayer was admitted to the prestigious College of Fellows by the American Institute of Architects (AIA). In 2019, national AIA honored Karen Braitmayer with the prestigious Whitney M. Young Jr. Award. She was the first architect with a disability to be so honored. The award recognizes architects who “embody social responsibility and actively address a relevant issue.” Most recently, she was awarded AIA Seattle’s 2025 Gold Medal Award, honoring her dedication to supporting equity and full inclusion for persons with disabilities in the built environment.

Richard Dougherty is currently the Executive Director of Architecture and Facilities for Gallaudet University. He is also a Director for Richard Lyndon Design—a multi-disciplinary collective with a focus on working with Deaf/Disabled artists and architects on projects across Europe and America. Prior to that, he was an Associate Architect for an internationally renowned award-winning practice, where he accumulated over 17 years of experience working on public and private sector projects. Dougherty was the recipient of the Project Architect of the Year award at the 2019 RSUA Awards ceremony for his work on the Transport Hub in Belfast. He is also a Design Expert Advisor for the world-renowned Design Council in the UK. Dougherty graduated from Queen's University, Belfast, Northern Ireland and was nominated for Queen's University's Student of the Year. He actively participates in research practices and presented a paper based on DeafSpace at the European Society for Mental Health and Deafness Congress in Wales, UK.

Chris Downey is an architect with over 30 years of professional practice—continuing without sight since 2008. Leveraging this altered perspective as a unique value, he now specializes in universal design for projects for the blind and visually impaired including eye clinics, rehabilitation centers and schools for the blind while also consulting on other projects including museums, cultural centers, tech offices and transit centers. Downey has been featured in numerous media stories including “60 Minutes” with CBS News, has exhibited internationally including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and speaks globally for Fresh Speakers with a TED talk that has been viewed well over a million times. Downey currently serves as chair of the California commission on disability Access and is on the “Building Blind Ambition” capital campaign for Enchanted Hills Camp owned and operated by the San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind and Visually

Impaired David Gissen is a historian, designer, and theorist of architecture. He studies how physiological and environmental ideas are embedded in modern and late-modern architecture and design. He is the author of four books, including The Architecture of Disability: Buildings, Cities, and Landscapes beyond Access (University of Minnesota Press, 2023) and Subnature: Architecture’s Other Environments (Princeton Architectural Press 2009). Gissen has also published numerous essays for journals, magazines, books and exhibition catalogs. His architectural and urban proposals have been exhibited at the Venice Biennial and Victoria and Albert Museum, among other venues. He is the inaugural Class of 1972 Professor at the Yale School of Architecture and the Director of the School’s PhD program. He has held additional academic appointments at The New School, Columbia University GSAPP, MIT, The Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, and the California College of the Arts.

Rachel Updegrove is an autistic woman and a Lab Planner who funnels her passion for neurodiversity into discovering the needs, wants, and cultures of HERA laboratory planners' clients to help create the best laboratory environment tailored to them. As a neurodivergent woman, she has spoken and advocated for neurodivergent people on regional and global AEC stages, encouraging designers to think beyond stereotypes and consider the needs of people changing.