About Us
We’re Scott & Sarah Pruett, co-founders of The UD Project. We live in Virginia and have been journeying since 2012 to help increase the prevalence of universally accessible (i.e., universally designed) housing in the USA.
Sarah has been a licensed occupational therapist since 2009, and Scott has lived with quadriplegia since 1999. Our perspective alone doesn’t dictate what constitutes universal design. Over the years, we’ve built relationships with hundreds of people affected by disability & learned from them.
We provide online education, resources, and services related to home accessibility. Our position is that when more people understand what’s involved and the need for more accessible homes, the demand will increase, prompting more homes to be designed and built to be universally accessible.
Good Fit / Poor Fit.
Usability is the result of the relationship between individual factors, the design of the environment, and the activities someone does. When applied to housing, a home is a “good fit” when its design supports successful performance of everyday activities, and a “poor fit” when it creates barriers to completing tasks with ease.
This perspective recognizes that universally designed homes enable people of all walks of life to engage in meaningful activities with the greatest possible dignity and independence. Rather than asking “What requirements do we need to follow for accessibility?” it asks “How can we create spaces that enable people to do all of the activities that matter?”
Our focus is new homes.
While universal design can be applied in many contexts, we focus on new single-family homes. Our housing stock has an extreme shortage of accessible options. We want to see more universally accessible homes available for homebuyers.
Why universal design? Because 19% of households have a wide range of accessibility needs. If home accessibility is always custom, the need will never be met at scale.
That said, we know not everyone is in the position to buy and/or build a new UD home. We also teach about home modification. The problem with modifications is that compromises occur due to budget constraints or what’s possible with an existing home.
Housing impacts health.
A home can promote health or make it worse. Accessibility isn’t solely about being able to get in and out of spaces. It’s about people being able to do everything they need to do without unnecessary difficulty. This leads to better hygiene, better eating, better movement, & more.
Our research has found that accessibility (or the lack thereof) impacts mental health equally, if not more, than physical health. The design of the home environment affects how people can manage roles and responsibilities. Daily frustrations and strains on household relationships can be minimized or avoided when homes are a “good fit” for those living there.
Community matters.
It’s shortsighted to consider universally accessible homes only useful for “those other people.” It’s difficult to build community if the only home someone can access is their own. Communities are stronger without barriers to socialization.
The Bible tells us “the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable” (1 Cor 12:12-27 ). If communities include members with varying abilities, and if homes are sites of community life, then inaccessible homes exclude people from full participation. Our homes play a big part in bringing people together.
We have a big goal.
Our Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG ) is to educate 1 million people by 2035 about accessible housing to help increase the demand for universal design.
This is because our vision is for every community in the USA to have a surplus of universally accessible homes. 25 million households have accessibility needs (HUD, 2022 ), and people shouldn’t compromise their health and well-being due to inaccessible housing options. More UD homes won’t be built unless the demand for them goes up.