ARE YOU AN INCLUSIVE DESIGNER? DA ARE YOU AN INCLUSIVE R Despite improvements in the last 30 years we still have a long E D E S I G N E R ? E Y way to go before all of our buildings are easy and comfortable O 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 I N An eye-opening guide to the many factors impacting G I N accessibility in the built environment, this essential text is C packed with illustrated examples of both good and bad design. NL U 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 F awarded the OBE for services to le c disabled people.  k www.ribabookshops.com Are you an inclusive designer_Cover.indd 1 10/4/2019 11:29:07 AM ARE YOU AN INCLUSIVE D E S I G N E R ? 001-019 Inclusive Design Prelims V5.indd 1 10/4/2019 11:32:49 PM 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. 001-019 Inclusive Design Prelims V5.indd 2 10/4/2019 11:32:49 PM ARE YOU AN INCLUSIVE D E S I G N E R ? Julie Fleck 001-019 Inclusive Design Prelims V5.indd 3 10/4/2019 11:32:50 PM 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 75 001-019 Inclusive Design Prelims V5.indd 4 10/4/2019 11:32:50 PM 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 187 001-019 Inclusive Design Prelims V5.indd 5 10/4/2019 11:32:50 PM 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 245 001-019 Inclusive Design Prelims V5.indd 6 10/4/2019 11:32:50 PM 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 334 001-019 Inclusive Design Prelims V5.indd 7 10/4/2019 11:32:50 PM 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. 001-019 Inclusive Design Prelims V5.indd 8 10/4/2019 11:32:50 PM 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 001-019 Inclusive Design Prelims V5.indd 9 10/4/2019 11:32:50 PM