“Good buildings come from good people, and all problems are solved by good design.” - Stephen Gardiner. Elise is on a mission of revolutionizing industrial design objectives for accessibility. She founded Elise Roy & Associates, a social enterprise that works with organizations to analyze problems and helps them tailor their design practices which can benefit people with disabilities. Upon graduation from law school Elise received the prestigious Georgetown University Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship. She negotiated an international human rights policy for people with disabilities while working as a consultant. Elise received the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) Paul Hearne Award for her efforts towards inclusion and humans rights work and work within the UN and more. Her expert skills as a public speaker are evident in her TEDx talk, “When we Design for Disability, We All Benefit,” which has over 1.1 million views.

What inspired you to refocus your career from law to design?E: Although as a lawyer I loved the good that I was doing, the day-to-day work was not something I truly enjoyed. I’ve always been a creative person who enjoys developing lots of ideas, recognizing unique connections between otherwise disparate things and working with others. When I was in Zambia, I learned that the life expectancy was just 32. I decided life was too short to not do what you love. And I began slowly making the transition to design, first getting involved in graphic design and fabrication. Later, I found human centered design and new immediately that it was the job I was made for.

How is the designing industry progressing towards inclusiveness?E: The design industry is slowly moving towards inclusiveness. The Cooper Hewitt (America’s only design museum - US lead) recently had an exhibit on Access and Ability which I was honored to be a part of. The exhibit gave inclusive and accessible design a lot of attention from media outlets such as Architectural Digest, FastCo and the NY Times. Tech, financial, and automobile companies are developing inclusive design teams as well.
The biggest barrier that I face in my work, however, is that people still view designing for disability as “doing good.” But the reality is that inclusive design is about innovation. When we design for disability we often develop innovations that move us light years ahead of the traditional innovation process. Accessibility is just this wonderful byproduct that happens along the way.

What is the best thing do you love about being a human-centered designer? What important issues are you focusing on as a designer?E: I love the creativity, energy and exchange of ideas that’s involved. I love helping people who never thought of themselves as creative, be creative. I love how I tend to meet all sorts of quirky, interesting people. And of course, I love the “aha" moment when we have a new insights.
I’m focusing on helping our design industry realize the innovation value of including people with disabilities in their design process and giving them the tools necessary to do so.

How was your experience working as a lawyer? Which assignment is the most memorable and why?E: I loved the challenge that the law brought and the good that I could do. The biggest honor that I had was working on the United Nations Disability Treaty. It was amazing to work with people from all across the world and learn about their experiences with access and disability.
My most memorable case was a hospital access case for people with disabilities. We had a deaf plaintiff who was undergoing a spinal tap and the doctor failed to tell her what was happening because he didn’t get an interpreter and didn’t know how to communicate with her. They just began inserting this long and painful needle in her spine. I can’t imagine how horrible that must have been. I cringe just thinking about it.

What challenges did you face during your school and college years? How did you motivate yourself to face those challenges?E: In middle and high school I didn’t have any accommodations. As a result I had to just teach myself using the books we had and getting extra help when I could. It was difficult and I definitely could have gotten better grades if I had understood what was said! But it also taught me how to teach myself anything. I’ve developed a life long love of learning as a result. In college, my world opened up because I got real time captioning which is similar to closed captions on tv except someone was actually captioning it live for me in the classroom. Unfortunately my freshman year, my university tried to take it away from me. Luckily the other Hard of Hearing students and I banded together and were able to successfully keep it for the remainder of out time there. This was also my first exposure to the power of advocacy! I think the biggest thing for me was trying to see the positive in it all. Of course I got frustrated along the way - many times - but I learned the most valuable lesson. That if you keep trying and don’t give up, you’ll succeed.

Who is your inspiration?E: There’s so many inspiring people if we just take the time to get to know others - to listen. Nancy Schlichting (the CEO of Ford Health Systems who used HCD to bring them back from the brink of bankruptcy). My tripawd pup, Besos. The members of the Deaf community in Haiti that I work with. The kids that I coach soccer to. Thomas Edison. Henry Ford.

What is your favorite place to visit? What do you like about that place?E: Just one? I’ve been lucky to have travelled and lived all over the globe. The world is a beautiful place - both in terms of landscape and in terms of the diversity of people that it has in it. I especially loved Vietnam and visiting the hill tribes there. They’ve stuck to their way of life despite all of the pressure to conform to the modern way. Yet there’s so much we can learn from them. In fact, I had the best ever garlic french fries cooked by a Red Zao woman over just a fire and a pot.

What are your other hobbies?E: Recently I’ve been into rock climbing. I love the physical challenge, the fact that you have to face your fear head on, and also the puzzle that you have to solve each time. When I can, I also enjoy woodworking and, actually, any art form that involves working with my hands. Unfortunately that’s harder to do while living in the city. Oh, and cheese. I love cheese. Most people might not consider it a hobby, but I love it so much that I do.

What tips/advice do you have for those in our community who are interested in pursuing a law degree?E: I would encourage you to make sure that’s law is really what you want to do. Learn what the day to day work is like. I don’t think I really knew what it would be like to be a lawyer before I went to law school beyond what I learned on Law and Order! I knew I wanted to be involved in advocacy so it made sense at the time. But if I had known about human centered design, I would have done it right out of college. It fits me to a T.

Any special message for our community?E: Find your passion. Listen to others and learn from others but don’t let yourself worry what they think. Find mentors. Try and fail and try again. And most importantly, believe in yourself. If I have learned anything so far, it’s that believing in myself is crucial.