Eugene Organ – “The ADA: A Catalyst for Inclusive Design”

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is both a civil rights law and a code of structural accessibility standards. The cohort of persons with disabilities is large and diverse. Addressing their needs in structural design, as mandated by the ADA also promotes the concept of inclusive design. In 2010, the ADA Accessibility Standards were reissued with significant changes. Design and construction in the future can achieve much of the demand for inclusive design by meeting or exceeding these 2010 standards.

Eugene Organ is the coordinator of the Northwest ADA Center–Oregon, a program of Lane Independent Living Alliance (LILA) in Eugene. For thirteen years he served as the executive director of the Oregon Disabilities Commission. In that capacity he was the first ADA Coordinator for the State of Oregon. Organ has served on many state committees, including the accessibility advisory committee of the Oregon State Building Codes Agency. In his present position, Organ offers training on the ADA and supervises surveys of facilities for ADA compliance.

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