At Prom, Only One Boy Asked Me to Dance Because I Was in a Wheelchair – 30 Years Later, I Met Him Again and He Needed Help

College took me longer than everyone else I knew.

I also learned how badly most buildings fail the people inside them.

College took me longer than everyone else I knew. I studied design because I was angry, and anger turned out to be useful. I worked through school. Took drafting jobs nobody wanted. Fought my way into firms that liked my ideas a lot more than they liked my limp. Years later, I started my own company because I was tired of asking permission to make spaces people could actually use.

By fifty, I had more money than I ever expected, a respected architecture firm, and a reputation for turning public spaces into places that didn’t quietly exclude people.

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