About Upside MS

Upside MS works at the intersection of accessibility, design, and lived experience. We focus on structural barriers rather than personal limitations.

Disability is often framed as an individual problem to overcome. We take a different view. When people are excluded from nature, movement, or public life, the issue is rarely the body. It is almost always the environment.

Our Approach

Upside MS is grounded in what we call Resilience Design.

Resilience Design treats access as a design responsibility, not a charitable gesture. It shows up in practical decisions. Shade structures along trails for heat-sensitive bodies. Seating placed at intervals that account for fatigue. Surface materials that work for wheels, canes, and unsteady gaits.

The work begins by identifying where systems break down and asking how thoughtful design can restore dignity, movement, and participation.

Rather than asking people to adapt endlessly to inaccessible spaces, we adapt spaces so more people can belong. This includes recognizing nature as a vital part of health and wellbeing, not a luxury reserved for those without physical limitations.

Our work is informed by lived experience, but it is not limited to any single diagnosis. Disability is a common part of the human condition. Bodies change over time. Designing for access is simply designing for reality.

Our Foundation

Upside MS emerged from the multiple sclerosis community, a population that has spent decades navigating poorly designed access in order to reach the outdoor spaces that support physical and mental health.

That experience clarified what functional accessibility actually requires. Not just compliance with codes, but design that accounts for fatigue, temperature sensitivity, variable mobility, and the cognitive load of constantly working around barriers.

We carry that knowledge forward. Our work extends to anyone facing access challenges in natural and public spaces.

What We Do

Upside MS works across three connected areas.

Accessibility installations

Designing and supporting physical pathways that enable meaningful access to natural spaces.

Advocacy and consultation

Working with municipalities, organizations, and institutions to address accessibility as infrastructure rather than an afterthought.

Design observations and case studies

Sharing practical insights and frameworks that reframe disability and access through clarity instead of sentiment.

Each area supports the others. Installation without advocacy lacks durability. Advocacy without lived grounding lacks credibility. Insight without both lacks integrity.