Thea Kurdi

Accessibility Education and Policy Strategist

Certified Professional in Accessible Built Environments Level 2 – Expert (IAAP)

Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Affiliate

Dip. Arch. Tech

Kurdi has been a trusted and respected built environment accessibility and universal design consultant and post secondary educator for the last 24 years for hundreds of architectural and urban planning projects of varying size and complexity. Known for her honesty and passion for disability equity, she has worked on accessibility drawing reviews, building audits, writing and illustrating client design standards, while also creating and delivering many accessible and universal design courses and education materials.

Thea lives with several invisible disabilities as do 75% of all disabled people. She prefers identify first language as her disabilities are integral to who she is and how she sees the world. Thea has been a frequent invited guest speaker at government events, conferences internationally, nationally and locally, as well as at schools of architecture and interior design programs. She has been a contributing author for many industry references and guidelines and the creator of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s (RAIC) Introduction to Successful Accessible Design course. She has also written many articles for magazines, been interviewed by the press on accessibility issues including CTV’s Your Morning, a recurring guest on TVO’s The Agenda with Steve Paikin, and for two years was a monthly universal design contributor to AMI’s Now with Dave Brown Show. In the past, Thea has also served as a board member for ArtsBuild Ontario and the Universal Design Network of Canada.

Thea has focused her career on helping clients create beautiful, inclusive and universal designs that focus on use-ability; designs that are actually better design for everyone, that respond to our rapidly aging population and intersectionality, but most importantly, comply with the Human Rights Code. Thea believes nothing is smarter, a better investment, or more sustainable than accessibility.

The future is accessible and Thea has dedicated her career to helping make that happen as soon as possible.