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November 2, 2025Lorraine Woodward, Founder and CEO of Becoming rentABLE
Image: Becoming rent ABLEAt September’s Social Science and Architecture Committee meeting, Lorraine Woodward, Founder and CEO of Becoming rentABLE, spoke from her own experience as a person with a disability and as part of a family that has long dealt with the limits of accessibility. Her organization identifies and verifies accessible short-term rentals, setting clear criteria that help travelers find housing suited to different physical and neurodiverse needs. From this perspective she showed how thoughtful design enables freedom, independence and participation, and how its absence limits them. Drawing on stories from families she has met through her work, she showed how verified accessible rentals can be life-changing, restoring independence and freedom of movement. Her platform addresses a major gap in the short-term rental market: out of 1.5 million listings, only about 1,500 are accessible. Woodward explained that accessibility is not a fixed state but a range of needs covering mobility, vision, hearing, neurodiverse and age-related conditions that require adaptable design. She noted that many improvements can be made flexibly and at reasonable cost, tailored to individual properties, showing that inclusion creates measurable economic value. She pointed out that accessibility is becoming a significant growth field as demographic change increases demand for adaptable housing and travel options. Her talk invited the group to look beyond the limits of inaccessibility and to see the opportunities in inclusive design. She also offered to share material for future workshops to strengthen knowledge and practice in accessibility. Her work showed the committee how a hands-on and well-structured approach to accessibility can achieve tangible results at an impressive scale. We thank Lorraine Woodward for sharing her inspiring work and perspective with our committee.
Social Science and Architecture
The Social Science and Architecture Committee was formed in January 2016 with the goal of bringing together professionals and students from architecture, social science, and other fields to discuss, collaborate, and facilitate programs for the community. The meeting offers a place to exchange ideas related to social science and architecture, address topics of interest to the attendees, and to plan AIA panels on related topics. The Committee meets monthly and is open to anyone who would like to attend. Meetings are held the fourth Friday of every month from 8:30–10:00 AM.