Episode
Designing Dignity: Pattie Moore on Aging, Empathy, and the ADA
- Podcast
- The Architecture of Healing
- Published
- Nov 17, 2025
- Duration seconds
- 3219
- Processing state
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Summary
Show Notes In this powerful conversation, host Chase Miller sits down with designer and gerontologist Pattie Moore , a pioneer whose groundbreaking work forever changed how we think about aging, design, and accessibility. Pattie shares the remarkable story of disguising herself as an 85-year-old woman in the late 1970s to experience firsthand the challenges elders face in the built environment. Her courageous research journey across more than 100 cities not only influenced design thinking but also contributed to shaping the principles behind the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) . From her early days navigating skepticism at Columbia University to shaping global conversations on universal design, Pattie opens up about blending creativity with social science, the mentors who inspired her, and the lessons she continues to pass on to a new generation of designers. This is an unforgettable episode about empathy, resilience, and the power of design to transform lives. What You'll Learn in This Episode How Pattie combined design and gerontology to create a new human-centered design discipline The origin story of her groundbreaking elder-disguise research project Firsthand experiences of how society treated elders before the ADA Why ADA compliance is just the starting point—not the finish line—for inclusive design The role of empathy, storytelling, and lived experience in shaping better environments Pattie's insights into teaching, mentoring, and inspiring the next generation of designers About Pattie Moore Pattie Moore is an internationally recognized industrial designer, gerontologist, and social innovator. Known for her pioneering research on aging, she has dedicated her career to advancing inclusive design —creating products, environments, and systems that work for pe…