Our Story
Every Journey Begins With a Door
Long before Open Door Design existed, there was Doors Plus.
Working with doors was never simply about construction. Every installation represented an entrance to a home, a business, or a new opportunity.
Looking back, it seems fitting that a lifetime spent opening physical doors would eventually lead to opening digital ones.
The work changed. The purpose never did.
An Unexpected Companion
While working in Greenfield, a customer painted a dinosaur on one of my neckties.
The original artwork was simple. A smiling dinosaur wearing a hat and shirt, with his arms ending at the forearms.
He was never intended to become a company logo or mascot. He was simply a gift that reflected humor, creativity, and the relationships that made small business rewarding.
For years, that little dinosaur quietly traveled with me. I had no idea he would one day become part of the story of Open Door Design.
Growing Along the Journey
As the years passed, so did the character.
The simple tie illustration eventually evolved into the full-body Dino that welcomes visitors to Open Door Design today.
Like the organization itself, he grew over time. Not through careful marketing or branding, but naturally, through experience and the people encountered along the way.
He reminds me that growth rarely happens all at once. It happens one step at a time.
Life Opens Unexpected Doors
Life has a way of changing direction. Some doors close without warning. Others appear when we least expect them.
For more than thirty years I worked as a Randolph-Sheppard vendor, operating food service facilities and building a career based on independence, hard work, and serving others.
Then came COVID. Like many businesses across the country, everything changed.
What initially felt like the end of one career quietly became the beginning of another.
Discovering Accessibility
Searching for a new direction led me to the Carroll Center for the Blind and the Screen Reader User Tester Training program.
For the first time, I saw accessibility not simply as technology, but as independence.
Accessibility was about creating opportunities. Helping someone complete a task independently. Helping someone apply for a job. Helping someone read a document. Helping someone participate fully.
That realization changed the way I viewed technology forever.
Another Door Opens
The journey continued through the Blind Institute of Technology.
The education, mentorship, encouragement, and Digital Accessibility Apprenticeship transformed curiosity into purpose.
I was introduced to accessibility testing, usability evaluation, document remediation, accessible media, accessibility engineering, project management, and countless opportunities to continue learning.
One lesson has remained constant. I do not know what I do not know.
Every mentor, instructor, colleague, accessibility review, and project has taught me something new.
Open Door Design was built on that idea. We learn together. We build together. We create better solutions together.
From Physical Doors to Digital Doors
Open Door Design exists because accessibility should begin at the beginning.
Too often, accessibility is treated as something added after a product is finished. Screen reader users, keyboard users, and people with disabilities are left adapting to decisions made without their participation.
Open Door Design follows a different philosophy. Design first for accessibility. Design first for screen reader users. Design first for independence.
The result is a better experience for everyone.
The Academy and the Innovation Lab
Open Door Design is built on two simple ideas.
Learning. Building.
The Open Door Accessibility Academy exists to help people develop accessibility knowledge through practical experience.
The Open Door Innovation Lab exists to transform ideas into prototypes that solve real-world accessibility challenges.
Education strengthens innovation. Innovation strengthens education. Together they create opportunities that neither could create alone.
Still in Its Founding Season
Open Door Design is still growing.
The Academy is taking shape. The Innovation Lab is expanding. New projects continue to emerge. New collaborations continue to begin.
The story is still being written.
That is exactly as it should be.
What Open Door Design Means
Open Door Design was never really about doors.
It is about what happens when they are opened.
- A new opportunity.
- A new skill.
- A new career.
- A new friendship.
- A new level of independence.
Sometimes all it takes to change a life is for someone to hold a door open long enough for another person to walk through it.
If Open Door Design can do that for even one person, then every lesson, every project, every prototype, and every hour invested will have been worth building.
Every open door creates another opportunity.
And that is the story of Open Door Design.