Since public health, safety and welfare are an interior designer’s first priorities, the National Council for Interior Design Qualification [NCIDQ] has launched a new feature on its Web site — the Health, Safety & Welfare (HSW) Education Portal. Certificate holders can use this feature to educate their clients on the value of their services and to further explain how interior designers protect the safety of the users of a space.

NCIDQ Certificate holders are trained to create spaces that meet local, state and provincial building codes and the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act—as well as the needs of the intended users. To show consumers, code officials and allied professionals exactly what that means, NCIDQ has created a three-dimensional, interactive floor plan of an office that shows design features that meet typical regulatory requirements, from fire-rated doors to wheelchair-accessible lavatory sinks. Scrolling over areas of the plan, the user encounters numbers that correspond to the various design requirements. To begin the tour, simply log on to NCIDQ’s home page at ncidq.org and click on the yellow button on the left side of the top photo bar.

“NCIDQ’s mission of protecting the health, life safety and welfare of the public is met by our qualification standard for education, experience and examination,” says NCIDQ President Deborah Steinmetz. “However, the public still is not clear what an NCIDQ Certificate holder does and how his or her work impacts their safety. Our new health, safety and welfare feature visually demonstrates why hiring an NCIDQ Certificate holder to design a space is in the public’s best interest.”

For more information on the HSW Web site or any of NCIDQ’s services, visit the NCIDQ Web site.

About NCIDQ®

NCIDQ® is an organization of regulatory boards and provincial associations in the United States and Canada whose core purpose is to protect the health, life safety and welfare of the public by establishing standards of competence in the practice of interior design. More information about the organization may be found at ncidq.org.