Fellow Award: FARAH MADON

Farah completed her Architecture degree with honours from India and immigrated to Australia at the age of 22. She worked as a registered Architect and was introduced to the field of Access Consulting via a CPD event on Accessibility. In 2007 she started her own practice Vista Access Architects with a focus on disability access consulting.

In 2010 she joined the NSW Access Consultants Subcommittee and then the ACAA National committee as an ordinary member where she continues today, in the role of Vice President of ACAA. In her role on the ACAA Management Committee, she has been instrumental in organising four ACAA National Conferences and several ACAA NSW network meetings.

In 2017 Farah was the founding editor of the ACAA’s Access Insight magazine. In addition to being the Keynote speaker at the 2019 ACAA Conference Farah has been a speaker at several seminars both nationally and internationally. Farah represents ACAA at the Standards Australia ME-064 committee and was the lead technical drafter for the updates to AS1428.1 that was released in 2021.

Farah has provided feedback for various public comment documents on behalf of ACAA including feedback on the NSW SEPP (State Environmental Planning Policy) Seniors and Housing for people with a disability and NCC (National Construction Code) Livable Housing Design Standard

Outside her role on the ACAA management committee, Farah currently participates on the following key committees concerning access for people with disabilities, on an honorary basis:

• The Australian Government's NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) SDA (Specialist Disability Accommodation) Reference Group member.

• Member of Standards Australia Committee ME-064, which is responsible for the AS1428 suite of Australian Standards for Access for people with disabilities and AS4299 Adaptable Housing

• Community Representative Member of the Penrith City Council's Access Committee

• Vice President of Livable Housing Australia

• Member of Australian Institute of Architect’s (RAIA) National Enabling Architecture Committee

• Member of the NSW GovernmentEveryone can Play Advisory Group

• Changing Places Australia's Technical Advisory Team member

• Member of ABCB’s Livable Housing Implementation Advisory Committee

Farah was the principal author of the Australian NDIS SDA Design Standard, which is the first standard of its kind in Australia that has raised the bar of design of accommodation for people with disability in Australia.

Farah provides pro bono services to worthy not for profit organisations. In the last few years she has provided pro bono access consultancy services to Bear Cottage (Children’s hospital-respite and end of life care for children with life-limiting conditions), Nova Employment (Disability Employment Service), The Haven (Women’s Shelter for victims of domestic violence), Nepean Disability Organisation (NADO), Grace’s Place - worldfirst residential trauma recovery centre for children affected by homicide, Luke Priddis Foundation for children with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders) to name just a few.

Currently Farah is working (pro-bono) on a large research project with the UTS (University of Technology Sydney) on accessibility for people with disabilities.

Some of her recent awards include:

• 2023 - Mulgoa Woman of the Year, awarded by NSW Government, for making a significant impact in improving accessibility in the LGA (local government area)

• 2021 - Excellence in Inclusion Award, awarded by Western Sydney Women with Altitude for ‘Being an outstanding individual working in the community transforming society and working to create social change’.

• 2021 - Australian Access Award, awarded by Center for Accessibility Australia, for creating a free educational app called SDA Tools to assist with design for people with disabilities.

• 2019 - Access Inclusion Award Winner, awarded by ACAA, for an SDA project that demonstrated a high level of accessibility

• 2019 - Penrith Citizen of the Year, awarded by Penrith City Council for championing accessibility in built environment on a local and national level

Farah certainly has made an outstanding contribution to both the profession and our Association and is a worthy recipient of Fellow Membership.