The William Keown Trust

Highlighting The Achievements And Promoting The Dignity Of People With Disabilities

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The William Keown Trust’s Access and Education Committee, aware of this need, arranged for a number of top experts in the field of inclusive design to meet and share their expertise with a group of representatives from local councils, architectural practices, housing associations and other interested organisations at a seminar held recently at the Europa Hotel entitled Inclusive Design for the 21^st Century sponsored by Creagh Concrete Products of Toomebridge and Henry Bros of Magherafelt . This afforded the opportunity to learn what lessons have been learnt in relation to the DDA, and the progress that has to be made to make our environment more inclusive including the introduction of innovative models of good practice and amended regulations.

Bill Keown, founder of the William Keown Trust warmly welcomed the delegates and thanked them for their attendance which spoke highly of their commitment to addressing the needs of people with disabilities. He informed the audience that some weeks ago a professional auditing group in the UK commissioned the Trust to undertake a mystery shopping audit at one of the large multiple stores located in the Province. The assessors found that problems for people with varying degrees of disabilities were numerous, many of which were not taken account of under the DDA legislation. Mr Keown said he hoped that the Seminar would be positive and enlightening and that each delegate would take the message back to their workplace so that attitudes will change and opportunities increase for people with disabilities. He then introduced the chairman of the Access and Education Committee, Mr Adrian Blythe.

Keith Bright

The organisers of the seminar were delighted to welcome back Keith Bright who is one of the specialist team who helped develop BS 8300: Code of Practice for the Design of Buildings and Approaches to Meet the Needs of Disabled People. Keith focused on the progress made in updating this British Standard to incorporate visual contrast and door opening/closing forces along with other issues. He also concentrated on other areas around the DDA, access statements and gave us his view on what is meant by the term an “inclusive environment”?

Complementing Keith’s presentation Ruth Morrow, Professor of Architecture at the School of Art and Design, University of Ulster offered a view on inclusive environments from an architect’s perspective concentrating on the relationship between design, people, public domain and development.

The William Keown Trust’s deputy chairman Paraig O’Brien who has just completed a research study on Wheelchair Dwellings in Northern Ireland presented his findings on how well these existing dwellings serve the needs of the people who live in them and what lessons can be learnt when designing domestic dwellings in the future. Paraig along with Adrian Blythe, chair of the Access and Education Committee has been involved in a study with Salford Council looking at Modular Adaptations and Adrian presented a most interesting update on the advantages of this form of construction and how it could be used as innovative way of providing accommodation for people with disabilities in Northern Ireland.

Left to right: Dr Ronnie Hamilton, Bill Keown and Orla Drumm of Creagh Concrete

The directors of the William Keown Trust would like to thank Creagh Concrete Products of Toomebridge and Henry Bros of Magherafelt for their sponsorship of this most informative event.