Those who remember Alan will be sad to hear that he collapsed and
died outside his home on Wednesday afternoon. He was 61 and had
been an enthusuastic player in the sector throughout the nineties until
ill health forced him to take early retirement.

At a time when disability support services are taken for granted (even
if they don't get all the support they would like) Alan's experience is a
stark reminder of how things were just a few years ago. He'd done a
range of physically demanding jobs until his health began to decline
in his forties. He described himself as a late developer educationally
and it was while he was on a degree course at Middlesex around
1989 that he noticed a fellow student was blind. Despite his own
difficulties, it grieved him that there was virtually no support available
for her so he set about investigating talking books, recording lectures
etc.

When the course ended he made Middlesex an offer they could
scarcely refuse, namely to set up a disability support service for the
price of an office and phone line. To fund the service he set up a
charity called The Able Centre but his success in '93 and '94 with bids
for HEFCE funding finally made him legitimate in the eyes of the
University and he was transferred to payroll.

From here on there was no stopping him. He rescued a sign
language bureau on point of closure by buying it off an LEA for £1,
then went after Access Centre status. I followed him every step of the
way and shared his frustration each time he thought he had his
premises settled only to find they vanished in the University's various
space saving exercises. Finally he succeeded but the increased
workload alongside his still declining health proved too much and he
was forced to retire on health grounds.

Not that that meant fireside and carpet slippers. He never lost his
interest in disability support which he regarded as the most
worthwhile phase of his life despite being all too short. He was an
adviser on building adaptations for a group of architects working for a
Jewish charity, and only on Monday of this week we attended an IT
trainers training day together. On our way home he commented that
he would just have time for a rest and something to eat before
attending the fitness committee of his local gym, of which he was
chair (of course) and fitness programme organiser.

Like everything he did, he did it with passion.

Dave Laycock

Head of CCPD
Chair of NADO
Computer Centre for People with Disabilities
University of Westminster
72 Great Portland Street
London W1N 5AL

tel. 020 7911-5161
fax. 020 7911-5162
WWW home page: http://www.wmin.ac.uk/ccpd/