Accessibility for All

Why Inclusive Design provision for means equal everyone
All too often, inclusivity is considered as an afterthought to a project’s design, brought in to tick regulatory boxes.
At Access4All, we endeavour to understand and interpret both the DDA and Building Regulations. There are times when interpretation can lead to catastrophic and expensive corrective works to be carried out. No one likes to do the same job twice.
The best way to avoid any such misinterpretation is to employ an Access Auditor. They have the knowledge and expertise to guide you along the correct path. Let’s begin with design.
So what is inclusive design?
The term inclusive design is often misunderstood. Its detractors often mistake it as a euphemism for designing for the disabled, that is: designing environments, products or systems for a small minority.
Another misinterpretation is that inclusive design seeks to find a utopian solution, a kind of ‘one size fits all’ to suit all types of users. Literary examinations of utopian societies, such as Thomas More’s Utopia, portray societies organised to overcome the flaws of human nature; where individual appetites are controlled and balanced against the needs of the community as a whole. Compare this to the inclusive approach to design, which positively recognises diversity and turns away from homogeneity. This process, when successfully applied, delivers environments where all members of society can access and benefit from a full range of opportunities.
By removing barriers that create undue effort, separation or special treatment, we enable everyone – regardless of disability, age or gender – to participate equally, confidently and independently in mainstream activities with choice and dignity. The adoption of inclusive design principles therefore ensures that the project, whether the built environment, a product or organisational policy, will be designed to be:

¦ Inclusive – so everyone can use it safely, easily and with dignity.
¦ Responsive – taking account of what people say they need and want.
¦ Flexible – so different people can use it in different ways.
¦ Convenient – so everyone can use it without too much effort or separation.
¦ Accommodates all people, regardless of their age, gender, mobility, ethnicity or circumstances.
¦ Welcoming – with no disabling barriers that might exclude some people.
¦ Realistic – offering more than one solution to help balance everyone’s needs and recognising that one solution may not work for all.
Inclusive design: making it work.
Putting it simply, people need to be at the heart of the design process. Developing exciting concepts for public realm projects and building striking and innovative structures does not preclude this. Too often, our role as access consultants is seen as ensuring compliance against checklists extracted from building regulations or British standards.
However, our actual role is to have a watching brief - encouraging dialogue and discussion within project teams to ensure there is an understanding of how the issues that form access and inclusion are addressed across all disciplines. At the same time, our guidance has to be balanced against the very real physical constraints of the site or financial restrictions.
One of the greatest threats to the delivery of inclusion is value engineering, which reduces access to physical features and their relative value within the project. This process really is about minimum compliances but accessibility does not lend itself to this approach. For example meeting the requirements of Part M of the Building Regulations does not ensure that duties under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) will be met. The DDA describes barriers that can be removed, but as it does not describe exactly how they should be removed there is, therefore, nothing to comply to.