IN A PERFECT

from Inclusive Design Magazine Issue 1 NovDec 2023

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I’ve been disabled since I was born, way back in 1965. I lost the ability to walk in 1981, becoming a full-time wheelchair user. After a spell working the ‘glamorous’ world of the media, being one of the first well known disabled faces on TV, I retrained to work in the world of inclusive design.

I was lucky enough to be included in a scheme to get more disabled people into the design and construction industries, focusing on accessibility using both training and lived experience. By 2008 I was out there in the world, trying to support and advise all manner of clients in their goal to create outcomes that made the society a more accessible, inclusive place.

Slowly I became aware that I was repeating myself at every meeting, and this was because there was such a knowledge gap around inclusive design and systemic practice. This led me to venture into the world of training and teaching.

Today, I spend my time between teaching, consulting, and acting as co-CEO of the charity Phab. Phab began its life 65 years ago with the aim of creating places and experiences where disabled and nondisabled people came together and had fun. This was ground-breaking back then, a time when all disabled children were sent to special schools, many disabled people were taken into care and to see disabled people in public was a rare occurrence.

A Long Way To Go

Life for the disabled community have improved since then and, even in my lifetime, I have seen huge advances in what is considered fair and right for disabled people, but we still have a long way to go.

Most people in our society, whether they have to power to act or not, want things to be fairer for disabled people. I’m always impressed at how shocked people are when they see a disabled person unable to live as they wish, but also at how accessibility now considered something that have been fixed.

“Isn’t this against the law now?” I’m regularly asked. Er? Yes, but try enforcing the Equality Act 2010, written so that discrimination against disabled people is an act against the person and not the state. What’s most unfair about the way the law was written is that too many who should be working to create a more accessible inclusive society know the law is so lax that they can get away with doing nothing, or as little as possible.

An Integral Part Of Design

With so many other changes to the planning and building control mechanisms, all making the systems more lax also, building regs and British standards are also ignored far too often. The Disability Discrimination Act came into force in 1995, which also required accessibility to be an integral part of design,

Mik Scarlet

Mik Scarlet is a broadcaster, journalist, presenter, actor, musician, and commentator, and runs access and inclusion consultancy, Mik Scarlet Access. mikscarletaccess.co.uk it was hoped it would mark a serious change in how we live, how we build a tomorrow.

To me, from the experience I have gained as a disabled person and as someone working in the design and construction sectors, the major barrier to an inclusive society is the belief that building accessibly, inclusively is building for the other, the outsider. Disabled people, older people, large families, people from other cultures - always the other, outside the normal. This has to change. At its heart inclusive design is the art of designing for everyone, and accepting that what may benefit one of the outlier groups will actually benefit everyone.

NEW THINKING, DIFFERENT THINKING

A world built for disabled people is a world that works better for everyone. A world designed to be better for older people works for everyone. These should ring true if for no other reason than we will all get old, and disability can strike anyone. It’s more than this truth though. Inclusive design is design that pushes the ‘norm’ and explores new thinking, different thinking. It builds on what works and finds new solutions for what doesn’t. In all areas of life, inclusive design builds better, more user-friendly outcomes.

It isn’t about building a better world for disabled people, or older people, or whoever. It’s about building a better world for us all.

I could have written about the great examples of inclusive design I’ve seen or those where I’ve been part of the design process, but what needs to happen is these shining examples of good practice should become the standard. A change in mindset is needed. Inclusive design is just design. If we reach this point it might lead to end of this esteemed magazine, but it will see the beginning of a future that works for everyone. I doubt I’ll see it, but it’s the goal I’m sure we are working and aiming for. Here’s to tomorrow. ID

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