Cover of Are you an inclusive designer? - a book by Julie Fleck. The cover is a colourful, graphic collage of people, buildings and drawing instruments on a white background.
On Tuesday evening access friends gathered at the RIBA Forum to celebrate the publication of Julie Fleck’s book, “Are you an inclusive designer?”. Julie’s 30 years as an access and inclusion specialist achieved so much in the field, for which she was awarded the OBE for services to disabled people in 2004.
The hardback book is large, partly because Julie has so much to say on the subject, but also because it’s designed to be beautifully accessible. A publisher’s note on the back page states that the main text is 13 point Arial and the pages are printed on uncoated paper to help improve legibility. The pages also smell good. The striking, colourful graphic illustration on the cover is by Kasia Serafin. The colour continues inside with plenty of photographs of examples of good and poor accessibility, diagrams and building plans.
A double-page chapter heading from Julie’s book: illustration of a person with a guide dog and some steps (white on red) with grey-blue background. Text: “Chapter 4 - The good, the bad and the imaccessible.”
I read Chapter 4 on the journey home: ‘The good, the bad and the inaccessible’. I just had to see which examples Julie included, but like her I wish there were more examples of good to choose from.
A double page from the book: A black timeline with white years spans the two pages, with numerous colour-coded boxes with text that indicate the publication dates of different types of guidance, legislation and policy.
A favourite page of mine is the one illustrated above - a timeline spanning from 1963 to 2018 that notes publication dates of various books, guidance, legislation and policy that impact on inclusive design. just reading the titles of the documents shows progress in attitudes: the first on the list is Selwyn Goldsmith’s ‘Designing for the disabled’, and the last is BS 8300:2018 Design of an accessible and inclusive built environment’.
I’ll be recommending the book to all the designers I work with, and would be surprised if it didn’t appear on built environment students’ reading lists next year.
Julie summarises how far we’ve come in making places accessible, but also states a call to action because there’s still so much to do.
Are you an inclusive designer? by Julie Fleck is published by RIBA Publishing, 2019 and is available here: Link to RIBA Bookshop