October 2016 – the inclusive home

October 27, 2016February 17, 2017

Accessibility Stories (Oct 16)

Thank you so much to everyone who linked up with my first ever #AccessibilityStories linky last month!

Perhaps it’s a reflection on the circles I move in (the toilet obsessed!), that several of the blogs linked were posts about changing places toilets. A lack of true accessibility and inclusion, affecting so many families (including ours) being able to take part in ‘normal’ activities across the whole country!

Brody, Me & GDD beautifully describes the grim realisation as her boy grows that there is very little toilet provision for older children and adults who need assistance in the loo, and comes to the conclusion that she must do something about it! “We can choose to be affected by the world. Or we can choose to affect it”

Mum On a Mission describes so eloquently the heartbreak of her and her son having to ‘make do’ in an unsuitable ‘accessible’ toilet in The future I’m trying to Change and, on the Selfish Mother, she talks of the struggle of feeling unheard and unvalued, when explaining to business’ how excluded our families are made to feel, in Why are Some Customers More Valued than Others

Ordinary Hopes has written so many amazing posts about how the lack of changing places toilets limits her son’s independence and opportunities. A crucial point she makes is that her son IS continent. Changing places toilets are not only necessary for those who need to change nappies or pads. For her son it’s not an issue of waiting until he gets home to change a pad, or grinning and bearing a pad change in an unsuitable space – he needs the use of a hoist to be able to use the loo. To be able to use the loo like his friends and stay out and have fun, rather than being ruled by his bladder. He is very much aware of this inequality in provision and illustrates this with his lego character Tina. However, some venues do really live up to their inclusive image and this lovely positive post about the Eden Project describes just what a difference that makes!

Little Mama Murphy linked up two posts this month about her amazing home adaptations project! Another issue so close to my heart! ‘Disabled adaptations’ can be such a confusing, limited and expensive process. Many of us watch programmes like DIY SOS and wish the team would miraculously appear and perform an amazing inclusive family transformation of our home. Well Little Mama Murphy has managed just that! With a team of the most brilliant friends and family members, donating their time and skill to carry out the #BigBuild4Hugh! True community spirit!

Rainbows Are Too Beautiful (I love the title of this blog!) reminds us that not all accessibility needs are physical. Sensory issues can make a place inaccessible to many people too, and she describes how her family often have to reccy a venue in advance of visiting as a whole family in Caution at the Aquarium

You can read all the posts linked so far on my Accessibility Stories Pinterest board.

The linky for October is now open and I’m really looking forward to reading some fab posts from friends old and new!

Please read the guidelines and then get linking below (the linky will be open for 2 weeks)!

Guidelines:

Link up to 2 posts each month (old or new)! I don’t have a badge, but it would be lovely if you could add a text link back to my site so people can find the linky and read the other blog entries
Please comment on this post to introduce yourself if you’re new to the linky, and comment on some of the other linked posts to help share ideas and experiences!
It would also be amazing if you could share your post (using the hashtag #AccessibilityStories) on social media to help spread awareness of the issues around accessibility! I’ll also try to retweet as many posts as I can!
I welcome input from anyone that is affected by accessible design – users, carers, friends and family as well as designers, developers, managers and legislators (so pretty much everyone then!). I welome blogs from professionals and suppliers as well as individual bloggers as long as they keep within the spirit of idea exchange and are not sales posts for products or services.

October 19, 2016March 18, 2017

Shouldn’t all homes be inclusive?

Originally posted on Clos-O-Mat & Building Talk

Before my children came along and I became a full time parent carer, I worked in architectural practice. Most of my design experience has been in home design, from individual house alterations to large scale newbuild and refurbishment projects.

I have to say I particularly enjoy the challenge of getting stuck in to an individual home project. It’s extremely rewarding to see how much of a difference a bit of lateral thinking, and sometimes just a few small changes, can make to the way a house works for a family. Perhaps by releasing a bit more breathing space through changes to the layout, adding better storage to make rooms feel less cluttered or maybe extending out or up to add extra rooms.

For me it’s important to take a broad view, think about how a family uses the spaces now, and in the future. Are the room functions in the right places? Is there any under-utilised space? Can circulation be simplified?

Becoming a mum to my little girl with developmental disabilities has reignited my passion for encouraging more widespread consideration of accessible and inclusive design in home design, as well as places, spaces and products.

I’m also a keen advocate of sustainable design (a much, probably over, used term!), and am passionate about improving the sustainability of our new and existing homes. But by this I don’t just mean energy efficiency, that is just a part of what good sustainable design should be.

Sustainability is also about longevity, cost effectiveness and minimising waste. If a home is built with flexibility in mind from the start, that seems to me to be fundamental to the sustainability ethos – in that it will last longer, cost less over the lifetime of the house and be changeable without being wasteful.

Designing a home for a whole lifetime’s needs (to standards like lifetime homes), will make subsequent alterations as unobtrusive and cost effective as possible and, quite apart from anything else, if you reach a time in your, or a loved one’s, life when greater accessibility becomes more critical, invasive building work is probably the last thing you will want to think about!

Accessibility also nicely slots in to the health and wellbeing aspect of sustainable design – why not make sure our homes more welcoming to ALL of our friends and family whose needs may be different to our own (perhaps granny with a walking aid, or your newly crawling niece or nephew?).

However for some reason inclusive design still doesn’t seem to be seen as a mainstream concept. There’s a perception that accessibility is only for wheelchair users. House design is either ‘wheelchair friendly’ or not, and there really is an acute shortage of the ‘wheelchair friendly’ variety.

It’s widely acknowledged that there is a housing crisis in the UK at the moment, with particular shortages in the south east of England and this compounds the shortage of accessible homes.

Somehow the idea that inclusive design (or even better accessible or universal design) is of benefit to us all, isn’t being embraced! I guess if you are young and fit it’s easy to be oblivious as to how our environment and buildings can make life difficult (or even impossible) for some people, but if you get injured and have to use crutches or a wheelchair, or even try to push a pram or wheel a large suitcase around, the environment can suddenly appear very inhospitable.

One of my dreams is to see inclusive design become ‘everyday’, for there no longer to be any need to differentiate inclusive design as a separate, niche, concept. I want to see fantastic examples of accessible homes featured on TV makeover shows, and in the homestyle magazines, so that disabled people and their families are presented with inspirational examples of how fantastic their homes can be, and (perhaps more importantly) so that non disabled people see inclusive design as an interesting and exciting design approach for life-long happy homes – to break the perception that accessibility is all ugly plastic grab rails and old fashioned stair lifts.

I want to see a celebration of design that is flexible for a variety of needs, design that not only works for you, your children and your grandchildren but that is stylish and ideal homes worthy!

Good inclusive design should allow everyone to be able to participate as fully with family life (as they want to!) as naturally as possible – what can be more valuable than that?

October 8, 2016November 20, 2016

My #TravelStories

Wheelchair with buggy board and seat for sibling

(In response to the ‘Greater Cambridge City Deal’)

I’ve never commuted by car.

In my working life, I actually enjoyed my morning commute by train or tube (when I lived in London), and underground (when I studied in Glasgow), allowing me time to get stuck in to a good book or listen to my ipod – yeah, ok, not always, I certainly don’t miss having someone’s armpit in my face!

I’ve also enjoyed commuting by bike in London and in Cambridge. I love cycling and it’s by far my favourite mode of transport, IF the infrastructure is there (otherwise it’s a wholly stressful experience!), if the distances allow and IF you are able to!

I’ve always found buses stressful. Possibly my own anxiety issues? They seem less predictable than train/tube/tram, the time is harder to judge and I’m always anxious I’ll miss, or not recognise, my stop. I’m a bit (actually, a lot) of a map geek and I guess I like the clarity of trains and tubes. In fact I’d describe both me and my husband as map/transport geeks! It seems perfectly natural to us to have selected each of our homes together based on the transport links, train lines and cycle routes!

When EJ was small, public transport was still easily doable. I didn’t attempt the faff with the pram/pushchair as I had a baby carrier for walking the dogs, so I used it most of the rest of the time too. EJ’s always been light for her age so I carried on in that way pretty much until she got her prescribed specialist buggy from wheelchair services, which coincided with her brother arriving, and her starting nursery in a neigbouring (awkward to get to by public transport) village. It was at that stage I began to use the car a lot more.

As I say, I love cycling and we are a cycling family so we do have a selection of bikes/accessories to enable us to carry on pedalling, including a fantastic family trike (zigo leader) which has a detachable front pod that can be used as a buggy. As EJ is a wheelchair user, we can’t just cycle somewhere without having a mobility aid at the destination!

However there are limits to how much and how far we can cycle, physically (I’m pretty exhausted generally through lack of sleep and I do a lot of lifting and carrying in my role as carer) and also the time I feel is reasonable to expect the kids to be strapped into bike seats.

Public transport, on my own, at rush hour, with wheelchair and two children… no…. just, no.

I don’t mind driving from time to time and in many situations I now find it necessary (to take the kids to different destinations. To transport the dogs, shopping, wheelchairs, walking frames….).

However I now find myself commuting by car. And I hate commuting by car.

EJ has just started Year 1 at special school. It is 6.9 miles from home (so google tells me). The next closest school (and, apparently, officially her catchment school, although I have never found or been supplied with any documentation to confirm this) is 8.5 miles from home. We have not been allocated school transport. With EJ less than 6 years old, I don’t think I would be taking up school transport even if we were offered it, I’m not ready, EJ is still my baby girl and it’s something I’ll investigate further later down the line. In the meantime I’ll take my little girl to school myself, like I would do if she was at mainstream school. However as she’s not at mainstream school that (normal parental job – the school run) involves a 6.9 miles journey at rush hour. So we drive. It takes us at least 40 minutes there and then about 20 minutes home, which is a long time in the car, but I feel most guilty for my almost 3 year old being stuck in the car all that time. (And of course then there’s the school pick up later in the day, so in total it’s 27.6 miles/day.)

Once or twice a week my husband is able to drop EJ at school on the way to work, leaving the car close to school. The wee guy and I will then make our way into town by public transport, which involves at least one change and generally a longish walk, depending on the route we choose. Thankfully EW is a bit of a train fanatic so he loves that part of the journey (however if more parking restrictions come into force this may no longer be possible for us, as we can’t afford the cost of high car parking charges on top of all our travel costs).

The current ‘City Deal’ proposals for Cambridge are a real worry for our family and I know they are for many others too.

I don’t feel we have any viable alternative to the car – I would LOVE if we did. The proposed congestion control points will impact directly on our current route. We will have to change to a longer way round, along with everyone else, so not only will the distance increase, it will also become busier. Our journey WILL take longer.

I don’t have the answers. I totally understand this is an extremely complex puzzle, but it seems to me that if you make driving awful for the average commuter (the ones you are trying to encourage onto public transport), you also make it awful for everyone else, including those who have no other viable options.

Us. Other disabled people. Carers and community services, local residents and local business to name a few that spring to mind.

I think there have already been a few contradictory strategic decisions in the city. Introducing charging for car parking at the park and ride, for example, seems to me to be counter to encouraging people onto the bus or cycling from those out of town locations! Positive reinforcement works for kids (and dogs! 🙂 ), perhaps it does for commuters too! Wouldn’t it be better to be offering incentives/rewards for ‘good behaviour’ rather than punishing the ‘bad’!

In our ‘special needs world’, there was a county decision a decade or so ago to consolidate the special schools into a fewer number of better equipped schools. Great in many ways as we love EJ’s school! However it means kids have to travel further distances and most of them have to be driven to school (either by bus, taxi or private car), and at least some of the staff need to drive as they also have community support roles to fulfil, so it’s inevitable that there will be traffic trying to get to the school at morning rush hour.

My feeling is that if you make public transport and cycling the most attractive option for the fit and able individual commuters, you have a far better chance of striking a natural balance between car use and more sustainable forms of transport.

Make the cycling infrastructure truly integrated (on my route into the city centre there are still many hairy sections and tricky junctions).

Improve public transport. We’ve yet to see how the new Cambridge North station might improve congestion, and I know there are proposals for another new rail station at Addenbrookes in the South of the city. Perhaps there are other options too, for additional suburban stations on other lines into Cambridge? How about a station in Cherry Hinton/ Fulbourn on the Ipswich line for example?

So this is my tuppence worth on the Cambridge congestion problem.

I know something has to be done, it really does, but to make sure some of our #TravelStories don’t get even worse, please think about the non typical commuters and the people living/schooling in the the midst of the congestion zone too.

Please think about those who who have little or no choice but to drive.