Peter Blanck will be Chairman of the Board of Directors for a new Global Universal Design Commission that is being established with the support of Josh Heintz and the law firm of Gilberti, Stinziano, Heintz & Smith.
The UD Commission is being incorporated as a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation to lead a voluntary consensus standards development process. The UD Commission will consist of designers, advocates, developers and other professionals interested in increasing the adoption of UD. The goal is to develop, with broad stakeholder input, a system to measure the application of UD standards in the built environment. The first area of focus will be commercial development.
Working with Peter Blanck as Chairman, the following individuals were invited to join the inaugural Board of Directors for the UD Commission: John Lancaster, Andrew Houghton, Ed Steinfeld, Carmen Jones, Berthy Aponte, and Graham Hill, and Josh Heintz. Graham Hill will chair the Committee to develop the voluntary consensus standards. Ed Steinfeld has received approval from his project officer at NIDRR to dedicate some of the resources of the RERC on Universal Design and the Built Environment to help develop the UD standards.
A preliminary meeting of the UD Commission is planned for May 30, 2008, in Syracuse, NY.