Are you an inclusive designer?

337 Pages·2019·40.279 MB·\337

by  Julie Fleck (Author)

ARE YOU AN INCLUSIVE DESIGNER? DA ARE YOU AN INCLUSIVE
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Despite improvements in the last 30 years we still have a long E D E S I G N E R ?
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way to go before all of our buildings are easy and comfortable
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for all of us to use. This book puts forward a powerful case for a SU Julie Fleck
totally new attitude towards inclusivity and accessibility. A
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An eye-opening guide to the many factors impacting G I
N
accessibility in the built environment, this essential text is
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packed with illustrated examples of both good and bad design.
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It challenges the notion that inclusive design is simply a list of
S
“special features” to be added to a final design, or that inclusivity EIV
is only about wheelchair access. E

R
Exploring both the social and the business cases for striving for
better standards, this essential resource empowers architects to ?
have more enlightened discussions with their clients about why
we should be striving for more than the bare minimum.
• Provides practical advice, illustrated with case studies, for
inclusive design principles
• An essential guide and learning resource for both
practitioners and students, celebrating good design
• Highlights how designers can have more enlightened
discussions with their clients around inclusivity
Julie Fleck has been advising on the
creation of an accessible and inclusive
environment for over 30 years. She is
a Design Council Built Environment J
u
Expert, a member of British Standards l
i
e
B/559 Committee, and in 2004 was
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awarded the OBE for services to le
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disabled people.  k
www.ribabookshops.com
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ARE YOU AN INCLUSIVE
D E S I G N E R ?
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Julie Fleck has been advising on the creation of an accessible and
inclusive environment for over 30 years. As the Principal Access
and Inclusive Design Adviser at the Greater London Authority she
was responsible for the inclusive design and accessible housing
policies in the London Plan, and following the London 2012 Olympic
and Paralympic Games was seconded to the Office for Disability
Issues as the Project Lead for the Government’s Paralympic
Legacy BEPE Project (the Built Environment Professional Education
Project). She is a Design Council Built Environment Expert, a
member of British Standards B/559 Committee, and in 2004 was
awarded the OBE for services to disabled people.
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ARE YOU AN INCLUSIVE
D E S I G N E R ?
Julie Fleck
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Contents
Dedication 8
Acknowledgements 8
Preface 12
Introduction
A celebration of inclusion or a warning against 13
complacency?
Chapter 1
How much have we achieved in 50 years? 21
Half a century of technical standards 23
Design for special needs 25
The first legislation to address access to buildings 28
The social model of disability 30
The Access Committee for England 32
The first planning policies 33
Design and Access Statements 38
The London Plan 40
The first building regulation 46
The principles of inclusive design 49
Civil rights legislation 53
We still have a long way to go to achieve inclusion 56
Chapter 2
Designing an accessible City 61
The inaccessible City 63
Access Adaptations Programme 64
Improved access to the Great Hall, Guildhall 67
Improving access to green spaces 75
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City of London Access Group 77
Dropped kerbs and tactile paving 78
Guidelines for an accessible built environment 81
Have we now achieved ‘an accessible City’? 82
Getting to and around London 85
Despite improvements, barriers to inclusion persist in the City 86
Creating an inclusive environment is a continuous process 90
Chapter 3
The most accessible Olympic and Paralympic Games 93
Going above and beyond the regulations 94
The integration of access and inclusion 97
Stratford City Consultative Access Group 98
An inclusive planning process 102
Compliance procedure 104
Disabled people played a key role 105
Welcoming disabled visitors to London 108
An inclusive development process from the outset 112
Chapter 4
The good, the bad and the inaccessible 119
The Sill National Landscape Discovery Centre, Northumberland 121
Portway Lifestyle Centre, Sandwell, West Midlands 128
Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children, King’s Cross, London 132
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic 140
Storyhouse, Chester 146
HOME, Manchester 156
St Paul’s Cathedral, City of London 161
National Army Museum, Chelsea, London 169
Temple of Mithras, City of London 175
The Bank of England Museum, City of London 177
Thames Riverside Walk at Blackfriars Bridge, City of London 179
Up at the O2, Greenwich, London 184
5 Pancras Square, King’s Cross, London 187
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Library of Birmingham 189
Clink Street, Bankside, London 190
Tower Bridge, London 192
Beach Huts, Boscombe, Bournemouth 193
The devil is in the detail: 196
Tapering steps 196
Foreshortened handrails 198
Open step risers 200
Lack of contrast on step risers and treads 200
Narrow, uneven and cluttered paths 203
Seats without arms and back rests 205
Illegible wayfinding 206
Heavy doors and confusing entrances 208
Highly patterned and shiny surfaces 209
Chapter 5
Towards better legislation, policy and regulations 211
Improvements to legislation, policy and regulations can 213
accelerate change
Inclusive design is a critical element of planning policy 214
Improving the building regulations 217
Inclusive Design Strategies built into project briefs and 220
procurement processes
Opportunities through licensing legislation 224
Inclusive design is sustainable design 227
Existing, historic and listed buildings can be made accessible 231
The need for more accessible and adaptable housing 234
The drive towards healthy streets 238
A better way to challenge disability discrimination 243
Towards better implementation 245
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Chapter 6
Towards an inclusive future 248
Changing our behaviour 250
Nothing about us without us 255
Local and strategic access groups 255
Collective and co-production 257
Is ignorance the enemy of inclusion? 258
The Built Environment Professional Education Project (BEPE) 259
New initiatives to improve skills and knowledge 264
Encouraging clients to embrace an inclusive design approach 269
Missing out on £249 billion 269
The Dairy, Cottage in the Dales 272
The impact of lottery funding 276
Missing out on talent 278
Inclusion champions 279
Looking forward to an inclusive future 281
Are you an inclusive designer? 283
C onclusion 289
Appendices
Appendix 1 294
Stratford City Consultative Access Group:
Protocol for Accessible Presentations
Appendix 2 299
Stratford City Consultative Access Group:
Protocol for Written Material
Appendix 3 300
Stratford City Consultative Access Group:
Lessons learnt and transferability to other projects
Abbreviations 301
Bibliography 304
Further information 307
Notes and References 309
Index 325
Image credits 334
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8
Are you an inclusive designer?
Dedication
To Caroline Gooding and Andrew Walker
They dedicated their lives to challenging disability discrimination
and promoting equality. Their wonderful friendship and invaluable
support gave me the courage and enthusiasm to spend my career
working to achieve a more inclusive environment. I miss them both.
Acknowledgments
It is hard to know where to begin as there are so many people I
want to thank, not just for giving me the inspiration to write this
book, but also for helping and encouraging me in my career as
an access officer and inclusive design advisor – they are the
reason I could write this book at all.
I should start with Andrew Walker, who I first met at a British
Standards Institution (BSI) meeting in 1989 and who, through his
dogged determination, demonstrated how to defy what was then
expected of a ‘disabled’ person. I have very fond memories of
the many conversations I had with him over a glass of red wine
watching him cook a delicious stew in his basement kitchen,
in his very inaccessible Georgian house converted into one
exclusively designed to meet his own particular needs as a
wheelchair user and his aesthetic demands as a conservation
architect. In 1993 he ran the first postgraduate course on what
was then termed Environmental Access at the Architectural
Association and he had a major influence on the development of
inclusive design principles and processes in the UK.
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9
Acknowledgments
I also want to thank all the friends and colleagues who worked
tirelessly during the 1990s, the decade when, I believe, the
most progress was made, particularly those who went on to
work for and make the Disability Rights Commission a driving
force for change. I first met Caroline Gooding when she
worked at RADAR (the Royal Association of Disability and
Rehabilitation) and I was a member of the Access Committee
for England (ACE). Her reputation for developing the legal
framework for the Disability Discrimination Act is well known,
but she was also very supportive of those of us determined to
put built environment access firmly on the government agenda
and I truly valued her friendship. Peter Lainson, Sabrina
Aaronovitch, Clare Goodridge and Alun Francis made my time
as a member of ACE really enjoyable. They all taught me a lot
and are still friends today.
‘Nothing about us without us’ has always been central to my
approach at work and I could not have achieved nearly as
much without the dedication, hard work and friendship of all
the local access groups I have worked with. These are too
numerous to name individually, but Peter Barker, director of
the Joint Mobility Unit at the Royal Institute of Blind People
(from 1992 to 2001), was particularly helpful when I first started
working for the Corporation of London. I learnt a lot from the
members of the City of London Access Group and when I
moved to the Greater London Authority (GLA) I enjoyed being
frequently challenged by members of the London Access
Forum. A big thank you goes to Peter Lainson, who chaired
both the Access Committee for England and later the London
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