The University of Minnesota Press will relaunch a 1979 text on accessible architecture as the opening title of a new publishing line dedicated to disability and design scholarship. The series, called Critical Access Studies, is scheduled to debut in January 2027 under the editorship of design scholars Lichen Hamraie and Bess Williamson.
A landmark text returns to print
The inaugural book is a reissue of Design for Independent Living, written by Raymond Lifchez and Barbara Winslow. First published in 1979, the book was a finalist for the 1980 National Book Award and has long been cited in architecture and design circles for its approach to accessibility. Rather than treating disabled people as an afterthought in building design, the original text centered their lived experience as the starting point for evaluating what works and what fails in the built environment.
Minnesota senior editor Pieter Martin acquired the rights from Watson-Guptill, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, allowing the university press to bring the title back into circulation decades after its initial release.
What the new series aims to do
Critical Access Studies is positioned as an academic and professional resource connecting historical design scholarship with current conversations about accessibility. According to the publisher, the reissued volume offers what it describes as a socially informed practice for architecture and design professionals, one that looks to the people most affected by design decisions to understand both their potential and their limitations.
By opening the series with a decades-old text rather than new research, the press signals an intent to root contemporary disability studies in design history rather than treating accessibility as a recent or purely regulatory concern.
Why this matters for design practice
Accessible design has grown into a formal discipline shaped by building codes, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and evolving standards for digital and physical spaces alike. Reissuing a foundational text gives architects, urban planners, and design students access to earlier thinking that predates much of today's regulatory framework, offering context for how current standards developed and where gaps may remain.
The press has not yet detailed additional titles planned for the series beyond the January 2027 debut, so the full scope of Critical Access Studies remains to be seen as more information becomes available.