For about 15 Ball State University architecture students, accessible design isn’t an abstract concept. It’s the focus of their work to help the Muncie, Indiana, community.

Members of Freedom By Design, a group affiliated with the campus chapter of the American Institute of Architecture Students, use their skills and energy to help elderly or low-income Muncie residents who have difficulty getting around their homes.

“I thought, ‘I have all this knowledge. Wouldn’t it be great to offer it back to the community?’ I want to use it. I want to help people,” said Freedom By Design President Jamie Owens.

Owens and his roommate, group Vice President Jason Klinker, led a project during the fall 2007 semester to help a Yorktown teenager who lost the use of his legs in a car accident. Freedom By Design volunteers built a canopy over the entrance to Chase Hemme’s home and widened his doorway to better accommodate a wheelchair.

Next, members of the group plan to renovate Hemme’s bathroom to make it easier and safer for him to use the shower and toilet. In spring 2008, the students were seeking donations for the second project.

“We want people to live in safety, to live in comfort, and to live in dignity,” Owens said.

The group was founded in 2005 and has been featured in The Star Press in Muncie and on WISH-TV Channel 8 in Indianapolis. It enjoys the support of the College of Architecture and Planning, and Klinker said working with Freedom By Design is an educational opportunity as well.

“It helps us in the design field to come up with creative ways to handle these situations,” he said.

Owens said undergraduate architecture course work prepares group members not only to tackle both the design and technical components of a construction project but also to lead a group endeavor.

In the future, Owens and Klinker, who both graduated in May 2008, hope the group can help four or five families each semester.

“We’re going to make Ball State be known for Freedom By Design,” Owens said. “We’re getting the word out for Ball State, and we’re helping people in the community.”