Flourishing Accessibility: DeafScape's Alexa Vaughn on Impact in Design Through Education, Research, and Practice
By Julia Gamolina
Alexa Vaughn (ASLA, FAAR) is a Deaf landscape designer and accessibility specialist. She is a PhD student in Architecture and Urban Design at UCLA, Fellow of the American Academy in Rome (with the Rome Prize in Landscape Architecture, 2022-2023), and was awarded the Landscape Architecture Foundation Fellowship in Innovation and Leadership (2020-2021). She has dedicated her practice and research to educating landscape architects, related professionals, and academia about the importance of including the disabled community in the design process, from the beginning all the way through finished product, and even after construction.
Alexa’s research and passion for accessible and inclusive design began as a student at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2018, she published an article in Ground Up Journal , Issue 07: DeafScape: Applying DeafSpace to Landscape, an area in which she is an expert. Her lived experience as a late-Deafened woman and as a member of the larger disabled community — being forced to adapt herself to the built environment, rather than the other way around — has directly influenced her work and has fueled her fire to create radical and inclusive change in landscape architecture and urban design. In her interview with Julia Gamolina, Alexa talks about her ultimate goal: to perpetuate an inclusive design process that calls upon the disabled community’s lived experiences and expertise, and furthermore, to help shape the creation of a more accessible and beautiful public realm — designed beyond legal accessibility requirements, alone — where the disabled community can flourish and experience joy.
JG: Tell me about your foundational years - where did you grow up and what did you like to do as a kid?
AV: I grew up in Long Beach, California. As a child, I was a little shy and quiet — I loved school and reading. I also loved art and did a lot of doodling and painting. I was a big animal lover as well. We always had cats and dogs in my family, and I actually wanted to be a veterinarian before discovering design! I also loved spending time at my grandparents’ home in Tehachapi, California. It’s always been a bit of a magical place for me, to be out in nature in a peaceful landscape. Tehachapi really informed my understandings of landscape and California ecology and my maternal grandparents were an integral part of my childhood.
How did you decide where you'd study landscape architecture? Why UC Berkeley?
I actually entered UC Berkeley as an architecture major. I decided I wanted to major in architecture in high school, after I made my first visit to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where my mom’s family is from. My mom’s cousin is an architect in Argentina and she took us to several really interesting places and buildings including Casa Rosada, the Divine Barolo, Recoleta Cemetery, and Teatro Colón. Many members of my family, particularly my mom and grandma, also worked for an architectural woodcarving company for many years, so I was always aware of design as an option for a career.
I chose UC Berkeley because I fell in love with the history of the campus — I remember on my first campus tour, they spoke about the Free Speech Movement on Sproul Plaza and I was really intrigued to join such a liberal arts-focused campus; later I learned about the Disability Rights Movement, too, which also happened at Berkeley and in the greater Bay Area. I’m also a California resident and the UC system is really quite fantastic.
In my first year at Berkeley I discovered landscape architecture. I was lucky in the preliminary design and lower division courses that I happened to have landscape architecture professors for each class: Linda Jewell, Chip Sullivan, and Walter Hood. Each of them really informed my growing understandings of what landscape architecture entailed; that the scale and scope were far larger than I ever fathomed. I was particularly intrigued by the social and spatial justice factors of landscape architecture: because the scale is so large and can be very public in nature, I realized it has so much more capacity to create real change for communities. I switched my major to landscape architecture very early on as a result, by the second semester of my freshman year.
Penn State Exhibition Bracken Lecture Series, March 2022. Photo courtesy of Alexa Vaughn.
Penn State Exhibition Bracken Lecture Series, March 2022. Photo courtesy of Alexa Vaughn.
How did you get your start in the field?
I started with internships. I interned first for Damir Hurdich Design (DHDSF) which at the time was only Damir! I also interned for Miller Company in San Francisco and it was great working on some projects for public schools in the Bay Area. I provided some consultancy for Mary Muszynski of Landible while a graduate student and also did work-study at Blake Garden, which belongs to UC Berkeley — both were small scale and hands on, which was great. I had my first full-time internship in the summer in between graduate school years with Studio One Eleven, which is an architecture firm in my hometown, Long Beach. I was also a graduate student instructor and this is when I discovered I really enjoyed teaching.
When I graduated in 2018, I started my first full-time job with OLIN in their Los Angeles office. Working with OLIN was really such an informative and fantastic time for me, as it was the first time I worked for a large, predominantly woman-led office. I learned so much and am still very much connected to colleagues there, particularly Tiffany Beamer, who was partner in the Los Angeles office at the time I was working there — she is now in Philadelphia, with the main office. The OLIN CEO, Lucinda Sanders, is also a powerhouse.
And then, how did you begin to develop your focus on accessibility?
OLIN gave me the opportunity to start to dive into practice-based research. I re-explored my DeafScape work in lecture format for the first time, by leading an Inclusion and Access series with my colleague, Danielle Toronyi, through the People Lab branch of OLIN Labs. This really jumpstarted the rest of my research and teaching to come. I also undertook a fellowship with the Landscape Architecture Foundation during that time and started my website of toolkits, Design With Disabled People Now. This was the point in time when I realized I wanted to specialize more in accessibility and inclusion of the Deaf and disabled communities in landscape architecture and urban design.
In 2021, I joined MIG, Inc. which has several offices but is headquartered in Berkeley. With them I started specializing in accessibility with the accessibility specialist team, which was then led by Heather Buczek in the Portland office. I learned so much about the technicalities of the ADA Standards for Accessible Design and also California Building Code (CBC-11B); my tasks usually focused on carrying out ADA Self-Evaluation and Transition Plans, which essentially assist public entities in becoming compliant to the ADA by providing assessments of their public spaces and buildings and a roadmap to become compliant. My work was much more technical! But I’ve learned so much about legal applications of accessibility to the landscape.
Tell me about how DeafScape developed, and what you’re up to now.
As I’ve progressed in my expertise, I’ve realized I wanted to do more consulting work and find more projects where my passions really intersect — I’ve enjoyed learning more about the technical sides of accessibility, but I also want to continue to work on high-end design projects by providing my particular expertise in DeafScape, Human-Centered and Universal Design. I love to look at what designers are working on and provide feedback (or a QAQC of sorts) from the perspective of accessibility. As a Rome Prize Fellow in Landscape Architecture this year at the American Academy in Rome, my goals for myself and my career have really been validated, as I had some space and time to be creative and really take a step back and assess where I want to proceed in my career.
This fall, I’m starting a PhD at UCLA in Architecture and Urban Design. It’s my goal to continue practicing alongside my research, but I am really looking forward to becoming even more of an expert in my field. I have the opportunity to join CityLAB at UCLA and will be involved with the Urban Humanities Institute, so I am really looking forward to continuing more interdisciplinary, practice-based, activist, and spatial-justice-informed research with my advisor Dr. Dana Cuff, alongside more formal historical research. It’s very important to me to make an impact through my work at all levels of design — education, research, and practice.
“I was particularly intrigued by the social and spatial justice factors of landscape architecture: because the scale is so large and can be very public in nature, I realized it has so much more capacity to create real change for communities.”
Tell us about your current work in designing for the deaf and hard of hearing community.
As I’ve been at the American Academy in Rome, I’ve had opportunities to continue guest lecturing and training workshops for academic institutions and professionals and speaking at conferences, such as the ASLA annual conference, virtually. I feel that every time I give these lectures and workshops, designers learn something new about becoming more inclusive for the disabled community and it’s very rewarding. Recently, I’ve also been providing some consulting for the School for the Deaf in Riverside, which has been a fantastic way to start to put DeafScape and its principles into practice for a fully Deaf and hard of hearing campus plan. In the past, I have also provided consulting for Gallaudet University in new campus designs.
My projects here at the Academy have focused entirely on being Deaf in Rome. I created three projects focusing on key themes of re-framing, re-imagining, and re-telling through a Deaf lens. In one project, I re-framed the idea of ancient votives, which are primarily known to have had healing significance, as offerings to the gods for a cure for illness or disability. I created my own votives as an offering of gratitude and pride in Deafness; Deaf and disabled people spend much of our lives being told we need to “fix” or “cure” ourselves to fit the built environment, so this was a very personal project where I flipped that narrative.
My second and largest project was a re-imagining of Roman DeafScapes. I visited 30 sites in Rome, with a few in surrounding areas, and documented DeafScape principles in parks, gardens, and piazzas through photos and sketches. I wanted to imagine these spaces, where designs are working well for Deaf and hard of hearing people, and they can serve as case studies in successful and inclusive historic preservation. My third project was a film created with the American University of Rome, in which we interviewed seven Deaf Italians about their understandings, use, and experiences with landscapes in Rome, in Lingua dei Segni Italiana (Italian Sign Language, or LIS). Completing and sharing each of these projects has made me realize that I want to do much more of this and continue to incorporate creativity into my work with accessibility and inclusion. DeafScape is really the essence of what I do, and what I want to continue to do.
Alexa Vaughn at American Academy Rome Open Studios. Photo by Daniele Molajoli.
Looking back at it all, what have been the biggest challenges? How did you both manage through perceived disappointments or setbacks?
As a Deaf woman, having a disability in school and in the design fields has been the biggest challenge, because I’ve always been the only one in my class or in my office who is Deaf. I’ve had so much support from professors and employers, which has gone a long way in making me feel welcome in my work, but really much of it is a lot of trial and error in figuring out what works for me in terms of accommodations, advocating for myself, and creating an environment where I can thrive. When I was at OLIN, we actually trialed so many different things for the first time — I usually use an app on my phone called Ava, which provides live captioning. When Google Meets started providing captioning, and eventually Zoom, it was a huge deal to me! Accommodating myself in general can be exhausting — and this is something the Deaf and disabled communities experience every day. Support from non-disabled colleagues makes our lives a lot easier. I also hope to see many more Deaf and disabled designers hired to work full-time in design offices.
Additionally, I had the goal of becoming licensed as a landscape architect within the first three years of my career. But then, Covid happened, which was a major setback to my licensure process. I also had a fellowship with LAF, then started specializing in accessibility, and now am wrapping up my year-long Rome Prize fellowship, so I wasn’t able to take the exams the past couple of years. I recently discovered they are changing the LARE exams, so some of the progress I made could very unfortunately be lost — it’s frustrating. It’s been challenging accepting the fact that licensure may take a while longer for me, and I’ve even been recently pondering whether it is still something I want to spend my time and money on. As someone who is very specialized and niche in landscape architecture and accessibility, I am not sure whether it is still necessary for me. Only time will tell; I am going to reassess my goals here.
“I want to create impact in varied ways, because undertaking different types of work impacts different kinds of people, and creates different kinds of tangible change in design. My goal is to maximize impact and to feel fulfilled while doing it.”
What have you also learned in the last six months?
Being in Rome at the American Academy and having time and space to work on creative projects alongside fantastic and innovative colleagues has been the opportunity of a lifetime. I really don’t think this fellowship could’ve come at a better time in my life, for me. As I mentioned previously, I created a series of projects while here focusing on Rome, DeafScape and Deaf Identity, so I really discovered more about myself while here. I visited many sites and did some traveling on my own which was empowering, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover public spaces in Rome where I felt comfortable because DeafSpace and its principles were present, even though they were not intentionally designed that way.
On a personal note, my identity really came into my projects this year. Putting yourself out there so personally can make you feel really exposed, but I was really happy to find people appreciated the projects so much. I also was very ill at the beginning of the year (and was hospitalized in Rome), so experiencing that health scare woke me up to how privileged I am to be alive, to be here in Rome, and to have the opportunity to do work that I really love, even as I continue to figure things out for myself. I feel really proud of myself for following my gut and for working towards my career goals — in a direction that is not typical, and without a roadmap for my career, or without having a person I can follow in the exact footsteps of what I want to do — for creating so much impactful work so early in my career. It’s a little scary sometimes, but I have no regrets.
What are you most excited about right now?
It’s a little bittersweet that I’m leaving Rome! But I am really excited to start my PhD this fall at UCLA. I am really ecstatic to work with Dr. Dana Cuff, Dr. Michael Osman, and other faculty in the Architecture and Urban Design department. Everyone is doing powerful work, I really want to be a part of it, and I look forward to teaching opportunities in the next couple of years, too.
Additionally, I’ve definitely missed California while being abroad, so I’m looking forward to setting down more roots there — I love travelling, but I feel like the California coast (whether north, central, or south) will always be home. I’m also looking forward to continuing to grow my personal practice in consulting and growing my client base and projects alongside my work as a PhD student.
Alexa Vaughn at American Academy Rome Open Studios. Photo by Daniele Molajoli.
American Academy Rome Open Studios. Photo by Daniele Molajoli.
Who are you admiring now and why?
I really admire all of my colleagues at the American Academy; the other landscape architecture prize winners, Katie Jenkins and Parker Sutton (Present Practice), and also the architecture prize winners, Hilary Sample and Michael Meredith (MOS), Jennifer Newsom and Tom Carruthers (Dream the Combine) are all doing amazing work. They are all more advanced in their careers so I’ve appreciated their feedback so much. We also all work on quite different topics, which is also validating —we have parallels but all fall under such a broad umbrella of what “design” is. I felt the same as I recently visited the Venice Biennale Architettura and all of the projects were so powerful and inspiring and diverse as well — the theme this year is Laboratory of the Future, and many BIPOC architects and landscape architects were represented.
One of my greatest mentors is Tiffany Beamer of OLIN, a fantastically creative landscape architect who always encouraged me (and still does!) to go after my personal goals. Dr. Wanda Liebermann is another fantastic mentor – I had the opportunity to take a class she taught at UC Berkeley called Critical Non-Compliance, which was an integral course on my path to specializing in accessibility.
I also really admire my soon-to-be advisor at UCLA, Dr. Dana Cuff. Her work at UCLA and with CityLAB in particular was a defining factor in my decision to attend UCLA for my PhD. Seeing your recent feature on Mariana Ibañez was also so refreshing and inspiring — I love that UCLA Architecture and Urban Design has such a creative, impactful woman as chair with a fresh perspective. I am looking forward to working with her as well.
What is the impact you’d like to have on the world? What is your core mission? And, what does success in that look like to you?
My core mission and hope for impact on the world is to make a tangible shift in how designers think about accessibility and about disabled people in the built environment. I work to help designers become more inclusive in their work, to become comfortable with working directly with the Deaf and disabled communities in the design process, in appropriate, impactful, and holistic ways. I always feel that if even one person walks away from one of my lectures, workshops, panels, or consulting having learned one new thing that has changed the way they think about design, then I’ve done a successful job for the day. I am very privileged and pleased to do this work and to be advocating not only for myself, but for the disabled community as a whole.
Success in this work, is where I’m an expert that designers can count on for support, and where I can create my own hours. I am one of those people who can get bored easily and I like a variety – this might look like researching (during and post-PhD), writing, teaching, consulting, and serving on a board or commission on accessibility, in variable percentages of time. I want to create impact in varied ways, because undertaking different types of work impacts different kinds of people, and creates different kinds of tangible change in design. My goal is to maximize impact and to feel fulfilled while doing it.
Finally, what advice do you have for those starting their career? Would your advice be any different for women?
My biggest piece of advice for those starting a career is to stay open to whichever way it might go. Sometimes designers — myself included — start their career with a very fixed idea of what it should be and set a fixed time period on career goals. Goals are so important of course, but so is life, and sometimes things don’t go as planned. It’s important to have goals and to work hard, but also to ensure you are taking the time you need for yourself to recharge. I truly believe we can’t be our most creative without taking some time to step away from the computer, to rest, to do things we love. It’s been a long journey for me in prioritizing joy, rest, and stress relief! And I’m still working on it.
For women and nonbinary folks, it may be more difficult to validate time for ourselves or for rest. If you’re struggling to, here is your sign to take that time. No matter how much pressure you are feeling, it’s so important. We are all worth it.