International Day of People with Disability

Sign at the entrance to Sutton House in Hackney

Did you know that Wednesday December 3rd is the 2014 International Day of People with Disability? While some people may grumble about there being 'A Day' for everything they are a useful way of raising awareness and encouraging understanding of the groups that they represent.

International Day of People with Disability and World Toilet Day (see this post) are two that I particularly support.

The image at the top of this post was chosen firstly because it made me laugh: the world is not yet inclusive enough for disabled people to expect to be to get into a sixteenth century house in the same way that everyone else does. Signs like this usually direct people to an alternative entrance. Secondly the sign is a reminder of the aim of inclusive design; that one day everyone will be supported by their environment without the need for segregation according to ability.

Sutton House is well worth a visit. Unfortunately many parts of the interior involve steps and other obstacles. I wish I'd made a note of exactly how much can be seen without steps. From memory the entrance level with Tudor Oak linenfold panelling, cafe and courtyard are step-free. The cakes and coffee in the cafe are also recommended.

World toilet day

World Toilet Day banner.

I've written before about why I've twinned my loo with one in Liberia, but today is World Toilet Day so here are some statistics about the Cord and Tearfund Toilet Twinning campaign.

"Lack of access to clean water and effective sanitation impacts the health of a community as well as their ability to develop economically. Here are some of the hard facts:

• "2.5 billion people across the world don’t have somewhere safe to go to the toilet (WHO / UNICEF)
• Bad sanitation is one of the world’s biggest killers: it hits women, children, old and sick people hardest
• Every minute, three children under the age of five die because of dirty water and poor sanitation (WHO)
• Right now, more than 50 per cent of hospital beds in developing countries are filled with people who have an illness caused by poor sanitation or dirty water (UNDP)
• In Africa, half of young girls who drop out of school do so because they need to collect water – often from many miles away – or because the school hasn’t got a basic toilet.
• The lack of a loo makes women and girls a target for sexual assault as they go to the toilet in the open, late at night
• Many women get bitten by snakes as they squat in the grass to go to the toilet
• For every £1 spent on a water and sanitation programme, £8 is returned through saved time, increased productivity and reduced health costs. (UNDP)
• In 2000, 189 countries signed up to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. The sanitation target for 2015 is currently way off-target and won’t be met in sub-Sharan African until the 23rd century."

On November 19th last year 96 toilets were twinned. This year the target is 100. Right now (09:40) the counter on the Toilet Twinning website is at 16. Here's the latrine in Liberia that my loo is twinned with.

Toilet Twinning certificate.

There are more ways to help on the WaterAid UK site.

How many people in the UK are disabled?

A couple of slides from a talk given today to a group of architects. Some more statistics about disability from The Papworth Trust, based on data from the 2011 census are below:

Children

• 17.6% of UK population are between 14 or under.
• 6% of children are disabled.
• Only 17% of disabled people were born with their disabilities.

Working age

• 66% of UK population are between 15 and 64.
• 16% of these people are disabled.
• UK employment rate among working age disabled people was 49% (4.1million), compared to 81.8% of non-disabled people.

State pension age and older

• 16.4% of UK population aged 65+.
• 45% of these people are disabled.

100 Buildings 100 Years

100 Years 100 Buildings exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts to celebrate the centenary of The Twentieth Century Society.

When I'm not talking about lifts, levels and loos I'm usually taking photographs. A photograph of mine of the entrance to Block D at Bletchley Park is included in the 100 Buildings 100 Years exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. The exhibition and accompanying book of the same name celebrate the hundred years of design and architectural heritage that The Twentieth Century Society has worked to safeguard since 1979.

Block D was selected as the building for 1943 by Roland Jeffery, Director of the Historic Chapels Trust. Here's an extract from the text in the book:

“The brilliance of the Bletchley mathematicians, their cracking of Enigma, the creation of the world’s first electronic programmable computer on the site - all have captured the world’s imagination. But for me, D Block and its routine and dutiful drudgery is as worthy of remembering. ”

— Roland Jeffery, 100 Years 100 Buildings, published by Batsford, 2014.

Entrance to Block D, Bletchley Park in the Royal Academy exhibition 100 Buildings 100 Years.

Moo!

A discrepancy in the stated dimensions for clear opening widths (COWs) in current regulatory guidance and standards for residential developments could be resolved by the draft Approved Document M. Responses to the consultation draft to be made by November 7th, 2014 and all the information is available on the Department for Communities and Local Government site here.

The images below are extracted from my recent talk at the National Register of Access Consultants Autumn Conference and explain my delight at reading part of the draft: at last the oddity about clear opening widths is resolved!

The first slide shows the required minimum clear opening widths for doors plotted against the width of an indirect approach in Table 4 of the current Approved Document, . At the top of the slide is a blue cow.

Slide 2: The Wheelchair Housing Design Guide states a minimum clear opening width of 775mm for an internal door, and a minimum approach width of 1200mm when any door approached from it is not entered head-on. (The text and diagram for this requirement contradict each other in the document). The graph shows the Part M, table 4 line and a single cross for the Wheelchair Housing Design Guide requirement. A blue and pink cow are at the top of the page.

This graph shows why I've always suspected that the dimensions stated in the Lifetime Homes standards are an error. The blue and pink cows at the top of the page are present again, joined by an orange cow, which is upside-down. The orange line added to the graph shows that the relationship between clear opening width and approach is consistent with Approved Document M for wider approaches, but when the approach is less than 1050mm wide the required clear opening width is 900mm, arguably showing that this width is excessive.

The blue cow now has a green friend representing the dimensions for clear opening widths in Category 2 of the draft Approved Document, which is largely based on the Lifetime Homes standards. The clause in the draft states two dimensions: a minimum clear opening width of 800mm for indirect approaches of between 800mm and 1050mm wide, and 775mm minimum for an approach wider than 1050mm.

The pink cow returns with a cross on the graph to represent the proposed clear opening width and approach specified in Category 3 of the Draft Approved Document, which is based on the requirements of the Wheelchair Housing Design Guide. A minimum clear opening width of 850mm with a minimum approach width of 1200mm, regardless of the direction of approach.

Unfortunately the method of measuring the clear opening widths for doors in the draft Approved Document is the same as it is in the current document, and therefore different to the method stated in The Approved Document for buildings other than dwellings, Lifetime Homes standards and the Wheelchair Housing Design Guide. I'm hoping that this will be changed before publication. 

This post is about just one aspect of the changes proposed to the regulations for dwellings. There is a lot of material to read through and comment on. Follow this link to see the documents and scroll down for a link to the consultation survey.

A toilet in Liberia

Cover image of Ghost Map by Steven Johnson.

Steven Johnson's book The Ghost Map is an account of the horrific cholera outbreaks in London in the 1850s. Doctor John Snow and Reverend Henry Whitehead disagreed with the official line that the disease that was killing so many people was airborne. Snow suspected that cholera traveled between people and meticulously mapped the number of deaths per household in Soho. Meanwhile, Reverend Whitehead noticed patterns of behaviour in the sick people he visited. The Soho epidemic appeared to centre on a communal water pump in Broadwick Street and Snow eventually convinced authorities to remove its handle. 

Tragically, cholera is still prevalent in many areas of the world. Having read Johnson's graphic descriptions of what the disease does to a human body, and knowing that it can be prevented, water sanitation projects always get my attention. Also, I spend much of my professional life talking about toilets, so when Toilet Twinning came to my attention on Twitter I felt I should support it and twinned my loo with one in Liberia.

“Just one in four Liberians has access to safe drinking water, according to the World Health Organisation, and half of all Liberians have no access to a toilet and use streams or open areas. Outbreaks of water-borne diseases like cholera occur regularly. As many as one in five deaths in Liberia are blamed on water and sanitation problems.”

— http://www.toilettwinning.org/about-our-bogs/liberia

The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson is available is available to buy at Foyles.

The commemorative pump in Broadwick Street, Soho, with the John Snow pub in the background.

Crypt without walls

The Crypt has not been seen without internal partitions since the 1700s.

Christ Church, Spitalfields, was designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and completed in 1729. The Church itself was extensively refurbished a decade ago and now it's the turn of the Crypt beneath.

The soil breaking ceremony on October 7th was a chance to see the space without internal divisions that divided it for centuries, but more exciting is the anticipation of the completed works, scheduled for spring 2015.

Dow Jones Architects won the commission back in 2008 with a proposal that will provide a fully inclusive, not just accessible, entrance into new multi-use spaces divided with oak walls and doors. The design allows daylight into spaces that can be acoustically and spatially combined or separated to support an even more varied range of uses than prior to the commencement of works.

Rev. Andy Rider and a church warden wield a drill at the soil breaking ceremony.

High street shop

Brass handrails at the British Library in London. Note that this building predates current regulations regarding stairs, landings and ramps!

Having my watch strap replaced at a high street jewellers yesterday turned into a mini - access consultation with the owner.  He was aware that he should do something about the three high steps to the till area and additional jewellery displays but was not sure what or why.

We discussed the idea of adding a pair of handrails and how helpful this would be to many customers. I could tell by his face that he wasn't keen on the idea. This turned out to be because he imagined support rails like you find in hospital toilets: not at all fitting for his elegant shop.

The example above is a brass handrail at the British Library, where those on the main stair are bound in leather. As long as they're sturdy and designed to assist people handrails can be as elegant as the building they're in.

Moving the till and counter to the lower (entrance level) would also be a significant improvement that would mean no more 'special treatment' for customers who couldn't use the steps to reach the counter.

I suggested that he had a look at the guidance for service providers on the Equality and Human Rights Commission website. (The guidance on this page is currently being updated). It also reminded me of Unity Law's excellent talk at the National Register of Access Consultants Autumn Conference last week.

Cats and cows

Two of the cows that will feature during the talk.

The subject of tomorrow's talk at the NRAC (National Register of Access Consultants) Autumn Conference is Accessible Housing: Towards Real Choice. I'll be talking about how the standards and regulations about the design of accessible housing have developed during the last decade and why they're about to change again.

Exactly how they change is up to you: The consultation documents are available here on the gov.uk site, and responses need to be submitted by November 7th 2014. There's a lot to read so get cracking!

The pink and blue cows will help to explain some of the detail of the draft Approved Document M at tomorrow's talk, along with some cats.

Other speakers include my ex-colleague Stuart Schlindwein-Robinson who will present the work being done on accessible hotels, and VocalEyes, who provide audio-description for theatre productions.

NRAC Autumn Conference

Withernay Projects logo.

The National Register of Access Consultants hosts a conference about current access issues every year in London. Rachael will be speaking about the current situation with the accessible housing standards at the 2014 event. More information can be found here on the NRAC site.