About:
Our own Thea Kurdi appeared as a guest on the AMI-audio national program called The Pulse hosted by Dave Brown, discussing the future of Universal Design on January 7th. The podcast is now available on podcasts services around the globe and can be accessed directly through TuneIn below:

About:
DE Inc., Canada's leading accessibility and universal design consultants, is pleased to announce the promotion of Thea Kurdi to Vice President, supporting the firm’s continued growth across Canada and internationally. This evolution of the DE management team comes as part of the long-term planning for the future for company.

Building on her 18 years of industry experience, Thea's expanded responsibilities will include organizational management and business development, with a focus on expanding into new markets. She will continue to lead DE’s accessibility and universal design teams for project reviews, building audits, accessibility standards development and accessibility training.

For over 30 years DE has been widely respected for its thoughtful and thorough knowledge of inclusive design and its service-oriented approach, contributing to many prominent projects across Canada and around the world. DE President Bob Topping notes, “Thea's sustained commitment to this company has opened up many avenues for us as a firm. She has been a key part of our recent achievements, and her transition to Vice President gives us even greater capacity to accommodate growth, expand our operational knowledge, and amplify our firm’s strengths. This is an exciting time for our firm.”

Accessibility is our business . . .

About:
Thea Kurdi and Sarah Libera will be co-presenting as a part of the panel for Designing for the Future: Accessibility in Urban Planning on January 18th 2019 at the Metro Toronto Concention Centre. Thea will be part of a panel discussion on Accessibility and Design on January 18th 2019 at the Metro Toronto Concention Centre.

Location:
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
255 Front St W, Toronto, ON M5V 2W6

Date and Time:

Designing for the Future: Accessibility in Urban Planning
Thea Kurdi and Sarah Libera
January 18, 2019 from 10:30 AM to 11:30 AM

Accessibility and Design
Thea Kurdi
January 18, 2019 from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM

About:
Bob Topping will be presenting as a part of the panel for Canada’s National Housing Strategy: Leading to a New Generation of Sustainable and Accessible Housing discussing Accessible and Universal Design Housing on November 28th 2018 at the Metro Toronto Concention Centre. Gain valuable insights into the latest codes, innovative bylaws and advances across Canada and close to home.

Location:
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
255 Front St W, Toronto, ON M5V 2W6

Date and Time:
November 28, 2018 from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM

About:
Our Thea Kurdi will be speaking at the 2018 6th Seoul Universal Design International Seminar on September 14th 2018 at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, South Korea.

Location:
Seoul Dongdaemun Design Plaza
281 Eulji-ro, Euljiro 7(chil)-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Date and Time:
September 14, 2018 from 1:00PM to 6:00PM

About:
Our Thea Kurdi will be speaking at the 2018 TEDxMississauga (de)mystify event on January 19th of 2019 at the Mississauga Convention Centre, Canada. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TED Talks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection.

Theme: (de)mystify
In an ever-changing world of technology, cryptocurrencies, evolving notions of human rights and equality, the limits of human understanding continue to grow. How do we take difficult or esoteric concepts, and make them clearer and easier to understand? The theme for the 2019 conference is (de)mystify, and that's what we aim to do at the next conference.

Location: Mississauga Convention Centre
75 Derry Road West, Mississauga, ON L5W1G3, Canada

Date and Time:
January 19, 2019 from 10:00AM to 4:00PM

About:
DE's Thea Kurdi will be attending the 2018 TEDxMississauga Meetup on August 11th of 2018 at the BierMarkt, Mississauga Canada (near Square One). Members of the TEDxMississauga Meetup Group receive invitations to exclusive events with the organisers, priority consideration for volunteer positions, opportunities to become a speaker and connect with current TEDx speakers. This is a casual networking and social event. Admission is free, but all guests are encouraged to support our generous hosts by ordering an item from the a la carte menu or purchasing a drink from the bar. New members are welcome.

Location: Mississauga BierMarkt (near Square One)
55 City Centre Drive, Mississauga ON, Canada

Date and Time:
August 11, 2018 from 7:00AM to 11:00PM

About:
Thea Kurdi will be speaking and presenting at the 2018 Universal Design Conference on September 6th of 2018 at the Victory Convention Centre in New Zealand. Te Ao Tangata - the 3rd Universal Design Conference is all about inclusion by design. By attending this conference you will engage in presentations and workshops around innovative practice in universal design locally and internationally, and shape the way that Aotearoa is designed and experienced into the future.

She is presenting the "Living in Place - Housing for Our Aging Populations using Universal Design Strategies" session.

Location: Victory Convention Centre (VCC)
98 Beaumont St, Freemans Bay, Auckland, New Zealand

Date and Time:
September 6, 2018 from 11:30AM to 12:30PM

About:
Thea Kurdi will be speaking and presenting at the 2018 Universal Design Conference on September 4th of 2018 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre in Australia. She is presenting the "Living in Place: Who are we designing for?" session. Getting accessibility right is often an uphill struggle in projects. The application of accessible design requirements often happens as an afterthought. It is time to challenge the design industry to reconsider the question, “Who are we designing for?”.

Location: Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC)
Merivale Street and Glenelg Street, South Brisbane QLD 4101, Australia

Date and Time:
September 4, 2018 starting at 11:00AM

About:
Both Thea Kurdi and Bob Topping attended the 2018 Festival of Architecture on May 30th until June 2nd of 2018 in Saint John, New Burnswick.

Bob Topping presented the "International Union of Architects (UIA) Work Program: Architecture for All" session. This session provided an overview of the concept of Architecture for All and introduce the UIA work program on Architecture for All.

Thea Kurdi presented the "What Designing For the Future Looks Like" session and "Accessibility Bootcamp" session. The first session gave learners the opportunity to discover the recent demographic changes our society is facing, how design and policy will impact our future, and see concrete examples of visionary design from across the country. And the second session invites learners to interact with the built environment, while building awareness of architectural barriers to accessibility and inclusion.

About:
The significance and impact of colour and lighting on accessibility in building environments will be discussed from various perspectives. Thea Kurdi will be attending this seminar on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 from 5:00PM until 6:00PM at XPO Canada, 181, Bay Street, Suite 1800. TORONTO ON M5J 2T9. The event is hosted by Architect@Work.

She will be presenting along with Vivian Lo (Vice-President of the Colour Research Society of Canada), Valerie Gow (Partner and Interior Design Principal of Gow Hastings Architects), and Yvonne Felix (Ambassador of Foundation Fighting Blindness).

About:
We've made a transition from designable.net to designable.ca! Our staff at DesignABLE Environments Inc. will have updated emails from now on, such as information@designable.ca.

The transition will be smooth, and you may continue to send emails to our .net addresses. We will automatically receive all of your emails to our new .ca addresses.

Please send an email to information@designable.ca for further inquiries about our switch, or if you are having difficulties contacting us.

About:
As of September 30th, 2017 our Mississauga, Lakeshore office will now be at 918 Dundas Street East, Suite 212, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, L4Y 4H9.

Our phone number and email will remain the same, please see our contact page for further details. We will post an update to notify you in the future of any changes regarding our contact information.

About:
Thea Kurdi is hosting a Radio Show through Voices4Ability (V4ARadio), Canada’s first 24/7 radio station dedicated to persons with disabilities.

Follow DesignABLE Environmentsand V4ARadio on Twitter to find out more about the show's schedule!

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What event(s) are you attending? The City of Mississauga is holding a presentation called "Mississauga Promoting Awareness of Invisible Disabilities and Accessibility" on May 30, 2011!

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Have you seen our article in this year's Profiles 2011 OAA Member Listings Magazine yet? 

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Have you seen the CMHC's "Accessible by Design" series recently in their Housing Technology E-Newsletter? You may not know that DE jointly developed these with Betty Dion (BDEL).

Click here to visit CMHC's web site "Accessible Housing by Design" article which has links to all of these articles at the bottom.

We hope you find them useful! And we would be pleased to help you with your project and any additional questions that you might have.

About:
The AODA and You... Get Ready! 2 Part Lunch 'n Learn!

Are you looking for reliable, useful information about the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA)? Especially what's in the Accessible Built Environments Standard (ABES) and what it's going to mean to your designs? Contact us to book a fact filled, stimulating presentation at your firm.

We bring the presentation and a delicious lunch for you and your staff to enjoy.

About:
June 8-9th in Guelph, Ontario at Rozanski Hall, University of Guelph

Meeting Standards, Making Change"

Hope to see you there!

About:
Ministry of Community and Social Services announced on July 14, 2009 that Ontario is seeking input on the initial proposed built environment accessibility standard, which was released today for public review.

Be apart of the process or at least be aware of the MASSIVE change that is about to occur in Ontario's quest to be accessible by 2025.

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Rick Hansen's Wheels In Motion, Scotiabank event is on this weekend at June 14th, 2009!

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Making way for Ontarians with Disabilities information week National Access Awareness Week from May 31st, 2009 to June 6th, 2009.

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Watch and support the 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games in Boise, Idaho, USA from Feb. 7th, 2009 to Feb. 13th, 2009

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Look for Bob Topping as he speaks at the Creating Universally Designed Sustainable Healthy Communities Conference in Vancouver, BC, Canada

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Look for our DesignABLE Environments Inc. advertisements in the December issue! They are located on page 18 and page 62.

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Look for our DesignABLE Environments Inc. advertisements in the November issue! They are located on page 35 and page 77.

About:
Designable Environments Inc. is now based in an accessible office space in beautiful Port Credit (a small village by the lake within Mississagua).

About:
Festival of International Conferences on Caregiving, Disability, Aging and Technology (FICCDAT) June 5-8, 2011, Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel, Toronto, Canada

About:
Take part on Sunday, June 8th, 2008 in the 6th annual Rick Hansen Wheels In Motion at an event near you!

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Keep a look out for your Open House invitation coming to your mail box soon!

About:
As of Sept 23, 2008 our Toronto office will now be at 5418 Yonge Street, Suite 1008, Toronto, ON, M2N 6X4.

Toronto phone numbers and fax numbers remain the same. Please see our contact page.