Julie Fleck - Are you an inclusive designer?

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.

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 Access Forum. Without his leadership and his challenging and pertinent contributions, neither organisation would have had the influence they had.

The highlight of my career was, of course, working on the planning process for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, so a huge thank you is due to all the members of the Olympic Delivery Authoritys Built Environment Access Panel (ODA BEAP) and before that the Stratford City Consultative Access Group (SCCAG), along with my professional colleagues at the ODA and GLA Margaret Hickish, Mark Dyer and David Morris. They all helped to deliver the most accessible Olympic and Paralympic Games in history1 and encouraged me to further develop the inclusive design planning policies in the London Plan.

I would like to thank my colleagues on the British Standards Institution (BSI) B/559 Committee, particularly David Petherick and Geoff Cook, and at the Access Association Rachel Smalley, Pippa Jackson and Neil Smith. A special thank you is also due to members of the Built Environment Professional Education Project Board (BEPE), particularly Paul Morrell, whose encouragement helped the project progress way beyond my early expectations.

A huge thank you also goes to all the people who have shared their plans, photographs and other images that have helped bring this book alive (see Image Credits, p 334).

But the most important person to thank is my partner Liz, whose constant love, support and quiet patience behind the scenes sent me off to work every morning with the courage to keep on keeping on. She has had to put up with my anger, frustration and obsession when it seemed that the world was not listening to our demands for a more accessible environment and when I was seeing the impact that physical and attitudinal barriers were having on my friends and colleagues. On many holidays she had no choice but to wait for me to take yet another photograph of an accessible toilet, ramp, handrail or lift. She waited patiently for my company while I hid myself away at the computer trying to put all my thoughts down in this book, and kept me going with all her delicious meals. Thank you, Liz.