The Access Manual

Designing, Auditing and Managing Inclusive Built Environments

Ann Sawyer, Keith Bright

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2014
• Print ISBN: 9781118730744
• eBook ISBN: 9781118896457
• Edition: 3
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Civil Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

This manual covers the design, improvement, maintenance and management of accessible environments. It shows you how to provide and run buildings, services, and employment facilities to enable independent and convenient use by everyone.

The Access Manual was first published in November 2003 and has been used by architects and facilities managers needing to meet the requirements of new legislation in 2004. It was well received by design, management, access, and health professionals.

This is a fast-moving area and there are now several additional pieces of legislation and guidance central to inclusive design and making buildings accessible to all. This 3^rd edition follows the same structure and approach and updates three main areas:

• The Equality Act 2010
• Building Regulations: Approved Documents to Parts M (2013) and K (2013)
• British Standards:  amendment and updating of BS8300

 

The authors have also updated the material on access auditing, providing additional examples and sample access audit reports and access statements.

With its comprehensive information on standards, legislation and good practice, The Access Manual: designing, auditing and managing inclusive built environments, 3^rd edition ensures you can:

• be fully aware of the issues involved in accessibility and inclusive design
• understand your legal obligations and the guidance available 
• commission access audits
• create and manage an access improvement programme
• maintain accessibility in buildings and working practices
• understand access issues in the design of new buildings

1
Inclusive Design

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1. An inclusive approach
2. Principles of inclusive design
3. Benefits
4. How environments are used
5. Access appraisals
6. Access statements
7. Case study – Canada Water Library

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An Inclusive Approach

An inclusively designed and managed building or space will allow everyone to maximise their own individual abilities and enjoy full, equal, confident, independent and safe participation in everyday activities. Inclusive design goes beyond simple accessibility. A design that offers a choice of stepped or ramped approach to a building addresses accessibility for all; however, one that incorporates a level approach for everyone to use is a truly inclusive design.

Design guidance is often based on the needs of a notional ‘average’ person; however, everyone varies from the average in some way. People differ in height, strength and dexterity; can have different visual, hearing or cognitive abilities; or may have respiratory impairments or reduced stamina. Mental health or emotional issues can also affect people's ability to interact with the built environment. Physical and mental health conditions can be temporary, ongoing or progressive and may vary considerably throughout different stages of life. Older people may have limited mobility; some may use wheelchairs, sticks or crutches. Mobility may be affected by having to carry a child or heavy shopping bags or push a buggy.

Despite this apparently wide diversity of need, many of the issues that affect how people interact with the built environment are similar. For example, good, clear, effective and sensibly used signage incorporating symbols helps everyone, including those whose first language is not that of the information on the sign. Firm, level, non-reflective surfaces will not only benefit people using mobility aids such as a wheelchair or crutches, but also people pushing buggies or carrying luggage. Well-designed lighting, colour and visual contrast may benefit people with sensory or cognitive impairments and will also affect how people feel and are able to respond to spaces and places.

An inclusive approach to design and management does not deny that there are specific areas where particular assistance can be provided. Hearing enhancement systems, such as induction loops, or the provision of information in Braille, are useful to certain building users. Specific provisions that meet particular needs are also part of inclusive design.

Adopting a positive approach and giving careful consideration to the abilities of users, rather than their disabilities or limitations, can identify design outcomes that are able to address the needs of a wide range of building users across the spectrum of ability, age, gender, and religious and cultural diversity. Active and effective management in use will ensure that these identified design expectations will actually be delivered in practice.

Figure 1.1 The London 2012 Olympic Parklands and Public Realm project, which received a Civic Trust award for Recognition of Excellence in the Built Environment, is a good example of inclusive design in practice.

Principles of Inclusive Design

To help achieve this aim, it is useful to understand and adopt the established principles of inclusive design. The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) published guidance on inclusive design, including a set of principles.

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CABE was established in 1999 as the UK government's advisors on architecture, urban design and public space in England. It was dissolved in 2011 and subsequently merged with the Design Council.

See Appendix B for details of how to access archived publications from CABE, including those relating to the principles of inclusive design.

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In the view of CABE, good design is inclusive design, and design that does not deliver an inclusive environment is not good enough (CABE 2006). They also suggested that good design will not only create inclusive spaces and places that address the needs of all those who will use them, they will also provide relaxing and enjoyable places for people to use (CABE 2008).

The principles proposed by CABE are that environments should be:

• inclusive – so everyone can use them safely, easily and with dignity;
• responsive – taking into account what people say they need and want;
• flexible – so different people can use them in different ways;
• convenient – so everyone can use them without too much effort or separation;
• accommodating – for all people, regardless of disability, age, 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.

The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) also identifies a set of principles of inclusive design. These reflect the principles suggested by CABE and also suggest that inclusive design must be central to architecture as it is not a minority or a stand-alone issue in the design process (RIBA 2009). The RIBA defines inclusive design as a process which creates places and spaces that everyone can use with comfort, dignity and convenience, and that seeks to further an individual's social and economic standing, regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity, disabilities or circumstances.

Benefits

It is often thought that addressing the needs of everyone in new or existing buildings will always lead to increased costs. However, appropriate consideration of the issues at the design stage accompanied by good management in use can deliver accessible and inclusive solutions at little or no extra cost. Buildings that are designed to be inclusive from the outset can also avoid the need for subsequent costly, and perhaps unsightly, alterations.

Elements of the built of the environment, such as buildings, pedestrian areas or transport interchanges, are with us for a long time, but their life is dynamic, not static, and there are often opportunities to improve accessibility. Floor and wall finishes, lighting, decoration and features, fixtures and fittings, and so on, may change several times throughout the life of a building. Linking improvements to maintenance or refurbishment programmes can help ensure that the work is done cost-effectively.

Figure 1.2 Good, clear signs help everyone.

There are also financial and social benefits to be had from designing inclusively. There are 10.8 million people aged 65 or over in the UK, and this number is projected to rise by nearly 50% in the next 20 years to over 16 million. The population over 75 is projected to double in the next 30 years. The number of people over 85 in the UK is predicted to double in the next 20 years and nearly treble in the next 30 (Age UK). Increases in the state pension age and the removal of compulsory retirement ages will almost certainly see an increase in the number of people over the age of 65 remaining in the work place.

Older people with higher disposable incomes are becoming a more important force in the market place, and with increased opportunities in employment, the spending power of disabled people will also grow. Service providers can increase and broaden their customer base by making their services, and the buildings that house them, accessible to everyone. Employers can benefit from the skills and abilities of disabled people, by ensuring that their buildings and procedures are accessible.

Inclusive design can also take account of cultural, religious and gender diversity and in so doing promote social inclusion. The religious and cultural diversity of the UK population has increased in recent years, and current predictions suggest that this is a trend that will continue. The Equality Act 2010 does not place a duty of reasonable adjustment to address discrimination against any protected characteristic other than that of disability (see Chapter 2); however, accommodating religious and cultural diver...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• From the endorsements and reviews of previous editions
• Title page
• Copyright page
• Frontispiece
• About the Authors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• About the Website
• Introduction
• 1: Inclusive Design
• 2: Legislation and Regulations
• 3: Standards and Guidance
• 4: Access Management
• 5: Design Criteria
• Appendix A: General acceptability criteria
• Appendix B: Information sources
• Index
• End User License Agreement