Paul DeFazio is an artist and architect who works at the intersection of design and disability.

He holds a Master of Architecture from Rice University (2024) and a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Edinboro University (2017). His research and practice explore blind methodologies of design, the politics of access, and the advancement of disabled people within the design professions.

Paul is also a core member of the Critical Design Lab, where he manages the Critical Access Primer, a forthcoming publication and podcast exploring access as a creative, cultural, and political practice. His other collaborative projects at the lab include Labs for Liberation, a design summer school co-organized with the black feminist technoscience group Digital Apothecary, where he headed the curricular planning committee and co-led the architecture lab in June of 2025 with Jumanah Abbas. He also works on Disability Meets Architecture, a dialogue series developed in partnership with the DisOrdinary Architecture Project, connecting architects and disability advocates.

He also works at the Institute for Human Centered Design, where he currently works as an in-house Architectural Designer. His projects include Building a World Fit for People, an interview series highlighting the contributions and perspectives of contemporary disabled designers. Other work ranges from developing system-wide accessibility guidelines for public infrastructure, facilitating participatory research, and consulting on cultural and higher education projects.

He is interested in design that blurs the line between theory, practice, and advocacy, and believes in using disability as a radical lens through which to fundamentally rethink the design of the built environment.

Paul is available for collaborations, lectures, and consulting in design, disability, and architectural research.