A Course Correction

Cynthia Leibrock started a high-end residential interior design business in 1969, around the time she graduated from the University of Colorado. In the early 1980s, she began to question her direction and her ability to make a difference. “I had to fire 14 employees and walk away from a thriving business, one of the hardest choices I ever made,” she said. One of the employees she fired invited her into a Bible study, and she began looking for her purpose.

“I grew up with a brother with a mental disability. One of the reasons that I ended up putting status symbols in people’s homes was that it was as far away from disability as I could get,” she said. Her spiritual journey brought the realization that she wanted to use her design talents to help improve the lives of older people and people with disabilities.

She returned to school for a master’s degree in barrier-free design, and in 1985, founded her business, Easy Access to Health, which offers consulting services in patient-centered design, planning for independent living, and product analysis. She has been involved with many prominent projects, including a showroom for the Kohler Company in which more than a million consumers have learned about universal design. She designed an exhibit for the Smithsonian with Julia Child, and she gives keynote presentations and workshops internationally. For 20 years, she has taught courses in Harvard University’s architecture department.

Her first book, Beautiful Barrier-Free: A Visual Guide to Accessibility, hit the market in 1993, just as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) went into effect, requiring all public spaces to accommodate people with disabilities. The timing of the book’s release was coincidental and “a miracle in my eyes,” she said. “It set up everything that came about after that.” Architects and designers turned the book into a best seller.