This book reveals that the twentieth-century shift from "design for the average" to "design for all" took place through political, economic, and scientific structures concerned with defining the disabled user and designing with them in mind. Tracing the coevolution of accessible design for disabled veterans, a radical disability maker movement, disability rights law, and strategies for diversifying the architecture profession, Hamraie shows that universal design was not just an approach to creating new products or spaces but also a sustained, understated activist movement that challenged dominant understandings of disability in architecture, medicine, and society. Illustrated with a wealth of archival materials, Building Access brings together scientific, social, and political histories in what is not only the pioneering critical account of universal design but also a deep engagement with the politics of knowing, making, and belonging in the United States during the twentieth century"-- Provided by publisher.