be an interior designer, pick fabrics, colors, fixtures, veneers, surfaces and furniture; don't need to know acad, just jot in a magazine and make copies to paste onto the job site walls while drywallers try to do their job.

HAHA this takes my mind back to when i was in college. there were 2 classmates who wanted to be architects but one didn't like drawing and somehow thgt she could have a great career that way, and the other didn't like using computers, went the entire program with minimal computer work as possible, until at her thesis the questions was asked "Do you realize many of your colleagues and most jobs if not all will require you to be literate with drafting and modeling software?

Hi JLC-1, thank you for your response.  From reading this board; I'm aware of the disdain that many architects have for interior designers (especially due to the Interior Architecture rebranding attempts).  Do you believe that earning a 4 year degree in interior design is worth it?  

I live in Michigan and anyone can call themselves an interior designer without any schooling.  Will they be able to sell their services without a portfolio?  I doubt it.  Nonetheless, no licensing requirements here.      

Hi s=r*(theta thanks for the reply, I completely hear what you are saying.  I understand that being an architect is 95+% drafting/modeling.  So I have definitely given up that idea.  However, I'm wondering if there are any specific areas to enter related to the Architecture field that do not require using a computer all day long?   
 

The only interior designers I've worked with (read: the only ones that Ive ever met who were hired) were effectively architectural staff and actually spent more time drafting than the typical architect/intern because they had hit a ceiling. They did their jobs very well and were always pleasant individuals who loved their job, but they effectively slotted into production with possibly some interior construction admin if they had been around long enough.

We use the computer for production, plain and simple. Its hard to get around that. The only ones I ever knew who didn't were 70+ year-old principles who were way past needing to do that.

While I really feel for you (my mother's entire career was in student services for disabled attendees), the hard truth is that you may have difficulty carving out a position where you're billable, without heading closer into your cousin's line of work

Just be a furniture craftsmen but not designer.

Every designer in every field I know of uses the computer.

Hi Bench, thanks for the response.  It's interesting that the interior designers spend so much time drafting at your firm.  I suppose that I was envisioning that the interior designers would be spending more time onsite preparing the site while arranging materials as well as trades.  However, now that I think of this...sounds like a construction/project manager's job.  

Rather then a design job at a firm.  Maybe I will be more satisfied by doing my own renovations then selling to move onto another project.

I can use the computer for brief periods of time like creating Photoshop mockups.  This is what I have done with my jacket and belt designs.  Take photo of existing item/reference, note measurement adjustments, add in proposed changes, determine material differences, etc.  This probably only takes 30mins to an 1 hour.  Not an entire day/week of computer sitting. However, it seems that interior designers are not actually going out into the projects and instead are more planning them in 3d and then moving onto the next project?  

Hi archiwutm8, thank you for your reply.  I actually like the sound of that.  I'm not actually much of a furniture enthusiast (I did indeed mention tables though).  But the crafting part is definitely something for me to focus on.   I especially like welded steel staircases and railings.  Pretty much stuff that is awesome which nobody except the elite have because it is all custom.  Maybe metal fabrication is in my future?  Thanks. 

I've been using a keyboard since mouses where little black balls and integrated into the keyboard.  I have no ill effects spending 8 to 16hrs drafting and note that my fingers and wrists are wrecked from multiple skiing and climbing injuries.  I've also trained myself to use the mouse left-handed or with the buttons reversed.

Anyways, I've always wondered how my classmates who had to hire undergrad students for much of the physical tasks would survive in the architecture world. I guess they don't. Have you considered continuing in the consultant field instead? Building enveloppe / facade design is a growing field and plenty of office hire out specialist to advise, develop details, and review assemblies on site.

Don't follow the ID route, most spend more time drafting than architects since their hourly cost is lower and cubicles don't move themselves around 8 times a day as per the client requests.

It seems pretty clear that you have an interest and aptitude for leather work. Why not transform that into a real business? There is demand for well-crafted, well-designed, well-fitting clothing and other leather items. I know a few people in that world and they are all successful. I'm sure it's not easy, but nothing worth it is.

Once you have a business up and running, say a few years down the road, you can get into real estate developing. Hire CAD monkeys and tell them what you want designed, then hire contractors to do the work. Use your "handicap" to your advantage, and focus on learning business and management skills. 

I was being sarcastic, I've worked with great interior designers and others not so great, but in this day and age, EVERYBODY involved in design and construction drafts, writes schedules, research materials and components, and communicates through a digital device; If you are very good at it you will spend less time "tied" to your computer and have more time to do other things in your life. From your long list of accomplishments I'd say you can find a way around it. And I don't know about a degree in interior design, seems ludicrous to me to pay and get schooled to get a taste if you don't have it in the first place.

As said above, you seem to have knack for crafts, why not try a farmer's market booth for a summer and see where it takes you?

Could you do your own renovation projects using a minimal amount of hand-drawn plans?  A know a few house flippers that hardly draw anything for their projects, and what they do make is all by hand.

^depends on how well you communicate with the contractors and city officials.

Maybe look into a position as a product representative? these are primarily a sales position, but you spend most of your time doing lunch and learns to present the product, trying to get your product specified and connecting the dots to make sales. It allows you to be in the industry, get to know a niche or product well, they get to talk design, architects love them cause they have free lunch, you go to networking events, tradeshows, business lunches etc. they don't usually draw anything but there is a lot of spec writing, drawing review and correspondence.  Most that I know make more money than architects. 

I have always thought when I couldn't take the architecture grind, and pressures of designing this would be a good way to go. 

Non Sequitur, thanks for the reply.  Very solid suggestions with consulting and taking a looking at building envelope/facade design.  I hadn’t thought about those areas before.  Thank you.  Also thanks for the reality check of what interior designers are doing all day.

Hi Wood Guy, you are absolutely right.  I will continue going on with my leather designs.  The cost to start a minimum order of hides is significant but not too crazy.  However, finding someone that will craft what I tell them is probably the largest hurdle.  (My last person needed to be hand held and they had been doing this solo for at least two years??!!!) I will probably sort the buckle situation out first then find someone to outsource the cutting, burnishing, hole punching, etc.  Thanks for the nudge.  Real estate development is definitely what inspires me the most.  Funding this with savings from another field is probably what it will take to accomplish what I want.  

Hi thisisnotmyname, thanks for the response.  I most definitely could start doing renovations right now with hand drawn plans; but not in the areas that I actually want to live due to soaring real estate values.  I’m a bit bummed because real estate prices in most prime areas are now exceeding 2008 levels :(  

I have found some interesting affordable properties states away though.  Since, I will have literally no help from family anyways…moving might not be so crazy.  

JonathanLivingston, that a really intriguing idea.  Some of the companies with products that I like which I wouldn’t mind repping are Schluter, Nudura, thermomass, and Viroc.  

Thanks again for the replies everyone.  I’m pretty much set on just making my own products and eventually starting a renovation project(s) of my own.  Does anyone have recommendations for a forum or Facebook group that these topics would fit into more?  Like showing builds or products in progress and asking renovation questions.  I understand this site is mostly for architects (and the oft repeated what architecture college question).   

"finding someone that will craft what I tell them is probably the largest hurdle.  (My last person needed to be hand held and they had been doing this solo for at least two years"

Sounds exactly like architecture. 

I'll begin by sharing that this was an incredibly difficult post for me to read. Not just because of this:

http://archinect.com/forum/thread/94026/grad-school-rigor-vs-disability

and this one,

http://archinect.com/forum/thread/149969403/mansplain-interior-design-to-me

but because the question that you're asking is a pretty difficult part of reality but I've been living with for more than a decade. I'm going to answer your question eventually, but first I'm going to try and answer in a way that I think would have helped me, when I was asking it, myself, almost a decade ago. Because the question is not whether anyone could do that, but rather, whether you, yourself, want to find out if you can do that.

You are beginning to learn how to live with a difference in ability. Most of us have to do that, eventually. We get old, our bodies fall apart, and eventually all of us die. Some of us have the unfortunate experience of becoming aware of that much earlier than most of the people around us, and in most cases that limits our ability to perform the kinds of tasks that able-bodied people can perform easily, which makes us feel insufficient.

One of the best things I've learned in the years since, is that my experience is quite a lot like that of a person assigned-female-at-birth, or a queer person, living in the closet, or someone who is very able, but also very poor. People make assumptions about who you are and what you can do. You will learn that it is frequently too exhausting to explain why you cannot do it. You may try and do many things that you cannot, because others expect them of you. You may loose jobs and friends along the way, but you may also find that there are good people who can help. Sometimes, they can help with a bit of the truth.

It's likely that you'll get familiar with the litany of steroids, naturopathic remedies (find a good one), minor surgeries, therapy (again, find a good one who has worked with repetitive strain problems) and near addiction to painkillers that follows from unworkable choices, whatever you choose to do as a profession. If I could help you see one thing it is this: that having a disability doesn't mean that you can't do something, it just means that you have to figure out how you can do it differently. It also means other people will make it a lot harder for you to contribute what you can contribute.

Learn how to draw, model, research, and communicate really well. Find a school that will admit you knowing about your disability, and interview their disabilities staff and the caseworker who will manage you to see what their real expectations are. Become aware of what work you can and cannot do. Learn dictation, and make it work, because without it, you are going to have a very hard life. Yes, if you work it, it works.

I cannot deny that architecture, as a profession, is one in which people who are differently able to have a much harder time than the cis-white males that make up 90% of the profession. The forms of dismissive, demeaning, bigoted comment that you've already received in this forum are something that you're likely to experience throughout the rest of your life, and you will experience more of it in architecture than in any other professional choice – except perhaps sports.

Still, you sound like you have talent, taste, and judgment. This is a profession that requires all three, so if you are willing to work on a life in this field, yes, the rewards for a person like you are bigger they they could be elsewhere. Stop listening to people to say to you that you cannot do things in the abstract, and work out how you can, in the concrete.

That, actually, is architecture.

^Men don't even make up 90% of the profession