News (July 2006)

A Career in Universal Design
Nancy Makay on Launching Her Own Business

By Athan Bezaitis

“I’m the only universal design consultant in my area,” Makay says.  “The majority of contractors that I work with have never even heard of the concept.”

Nancy Makay is a universal design consultant.  Her customers are people who require home modifications in order to accommodate special living needs. 

Based in Erie, Pennsylvania, she started her company, Live with Ease: Universal Design Consulting, shortly after completing the online Executive Certificate program from the University of Southern California Andrus Gerontology Center in 2003.

The following year, her first clients were a husband and wife in Texas who contacted her after reading an article she published in the magazine Real Living with Multiple Sclerosis.  The wife was suffering from MS, and their bathroom needed to be modified in order to give her more space.  Ms. Makay suggested a walk-in shower replacing the Jacuzzi bathtub.  She also advised a higher toilet to make it easier for the wife to sit and stand.  She performed the entire job remotely, sending specifications via email and communicating with the husband over the telephone. 

Soon afterwards she had another client; the family of a young girl who suffered a debilitative head injury from an immunization at 18 months.  Ms. Makay served as a consultant by developing a Life Care Plan for the child, performing a home assessment and making recommendations in order to provide an accessible and safe living environment for the girl to grow.  

Most of her work is local.  Jobs come from referrals from a partnership she established with a nearby medical equipment company.  

“I’m the only universal design consultant in my area,” she said.  “The majority of contractors that I work with have never even heard of the concept.”

Until she started having problems with her vision as an undergraduate at nearby Gannon University back in 1995, the idea of universal design was foreign to Ms. Makay as well.  The occupational therapy student was soon diagnosed with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.  It affected her vision and progressively weakened her legs.  Five years later she would come to rely on a wheel chair. 

Forced to move when she could no longer ambulate throughout her condominium, very few homes in the Erie, Pennsylvania area were able accommodate her needs.  With a little funding from family and friends, she bought a piece of land and built a house using the basic concepts of universal design she learned on her own.

“The contractor I was working with to build the home had very little knowledge of universal design,” she said.  “I was using online resources and books from the Center of Universal Design at North Carolina State University.”

Her ranch house, which is featured in the Photo Gallery of her company’s website at www.universaldesignconsulting.com, was built for people of all abilities for all ages and for all sizes. 

Let your home be your castle… without the barriers is her company slogan.

It is a two bedroom two bath, with an open floor plan and plenty of natural lighting.  Her laundry room has front-loading washer and dryer units.  Her kitchen has variable counter heights with a lowered microwave.  She has lever handles on all doors and fixtures including sinks and faucets.  The outlets are at a height of 18 inches and the doorways span 36 inches versus the standard 32.  She ordered rocker light switches, which are flat planes rather than the standard toggle switches and placed them at a height where they would be accessible for everyone.  The house also has no-step entries for the front door, back door and the garage entrances. 

“You wouldn’t know a person with a wheelchair lives in my home,” she said.

Shortly after completing the house, Ms. Makay was directed to www.homemods.org, a USC hosted website.  There she met others who faced similar issues lacking accessibility to universal design and enrolled in the Executive Certificate Program in Home Modifications.    

“I could do the class when I had the time, and I could do it from home,” she said. “It was comprehensive and provided a much richer curriculum than what I found on my own.  If it wasn’t for the course, I wouldn’t have my business now.” 

Through a listserv provided on the site, she met architect Charles Schwab – not to be confused with the financial magnate – who recruited her in his efforts to promote his book, Universal Designed Smart Homes for the 21st Century.  After several years of collaboration through email, the two met face to face last year when she accompanied him to a book signing event at the World Congress Disability Exposition in Philadelphia. 

“Ms. Makay has impressed me with both her knowledge of Universal Design and her enthusiasm to work towards the implementation of Universal Design around the country,” said Mr. Scwhab in a testimonial on Ms. Makay’s site.  “Both her energy and her sharp mind make her a pleasure to work with.”

Upon completing the five course USC Homemods program, a contractor asked her what she would do with her diploma.

 “Hang it on the wall,” she replied

“Why don’t you start your own business?” he asked

 “That’s a good idea,” she replied.  “But how do I do it?” 

Armed with the theory provided from her classes and hands on experience of putting universal design into practice in her home, she went back to Gannon University and used the resources of their small-business program to develop a business plan for her company.  She set up a website and established local connections such as the one that still produces leads from the medical supply company.  The telephone started ringing. 

Let your home be your castle… without the barriers is her company slogan.  The motto has come to represent her own experience of living in a home designed with maximum comfort and functionality that is also stylish and fun, befitting her personality.  It is her castle, her abode, after being unable to find anything else in the area that fit her needs.  Her home also symbolizes the barriers she has overcome – the same obstacles that she and other proponents of universal design also fight to prevail over.