Hi
I thought I might make my interest in this area - Autism and Access- also
known.
Just to let you know who I am, since I've been a bit of a silent listener on
this list.
I'm an architect but since my student days I have been involved in the issue
of designing for people with disabilities. In fact my last two years on the
architecture course were spent combining the experiences I had in working
with a group of autistic children with my own design and written work for
the course. It seems such a long time ago and I had very little to draw on
other than my own observations and I suspect we haven't come any further in
our understanding since then.
Now my job is to educate future architects. I've recently taken up a
permanent post in Sheffield School of Architecture, last post University
College Dublin (see DraWare Project's website http://avc.ucd.ie/DraWare for
which I was project coordinator)
I've been involved in inclusive design/ universal design since 1993 and have
good connections to those at the leading edge of this, particularly in the
states- as a group we have just finished a book - The Universal Design
Handbook soon to be published by McGraw Hill in association wth Adaptive
Environments, Boston) But as Graham says the majority of discussion and work
around inclusive design is still focused on physical access.
I would be really interested in trying to redress the balance. A colleague
of mine, whose own child is autistic, and I would be very interested in
helping to collate and expand to the existing knowledge around autism and
access. We don't want to stand on the toes of those who have more expertise
than us - but we do offer our resources and personal interest.
If anyone would like to contact me directly, my details are below
Regards
Ruth
Ruth Morrow
Lecturer and First Year Coordinator
School of Architecture
University of Sheffield
The Arts Tower
Sheffield S10 2TN
tel: 0114 222 0324
fax: 0114 279 8276
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