At the beginning of this month, the 1st December to be precise (and yes I did get an advent calendar as a pressie before you ask!), it was my turn to hit the big 3-0. Scary stuff I hear you say! Well the good news is that it was no way near as traumatic as I expected it to be. To tell you the truth I’ve been pretty lucky in recent years, in that people have often mistaken me for being younger than my years. Thanks guys, it won’t be forgotten!

All this thinking about getting older, lead me down the path of wondering what I would have put on my list of things to do before I’m thirty. It’s funny, I’ve always been fascinated by these lists, but I had absolutely no idea what I would have put on mine. You probably would’ve got more of an answer if you’d asked me what I definitely didn’t want to do before I was thirty! So I was in two minds when back at the end of November I went to the enABLE08 show and was confronted with exactly the thing I didn’t want to do before hitting this very milestone.

So what was the thing that filled me with so much fear? Well, if you promise not to laugh, I’ll tell you. The thing that woke me in the middle of night in a cold sweat, was the thought of having to use a mobility scooter in public. I know this probably sounds a bit daft, but mobility scooters are definitely up there on my list of things to avoid at all cost. You may be surprised to hear me say this, and I completely understand why. I have MS, walk with two crutches and often experience extreme fatigue, so you would think I’d be biting your hand off to get hold of a nippy little mobility scooter to make my life just that bit easier.

In theory, mobility scooters make so much sense, but the reality is that they always look so….well, cheerless. You may think this sounds a bit harsh, and I am most definitely not saying this to be derogatory in any way, but I find it hard to believe that anyone (whatever their age!) would describe their mobility scooter as stylish, let alone a babe (or bloke) magnetic. This may be a bit much to ask, but at the very least why can’t mobility scooters have the long awaited facelift that they so deserve. So many times I’ve seen spoof Tim Westwoods on sketch shows, “pimping” Granny’s mobility scooter much to her delight. Metal alloys, spoilers, the works (or whatever takes your fancy)! Wouldn’t it be ace if mobility scooters became a style statement, instead of the all too familiar bog standard ugly and characterless cousin of the Vespa. I suppose we can but dream!

The good news is that people are starting to take matters into their own hands by pimping their mobility aids without a Westwood in sight. I’ve even spotted the existence of a mobility scooter styled on the old school chopper bike (surely the holy grail of mobility scooters). Now we’re getting somewhere!

Back to enABLE08, “a national consumer show for people with disabilities seeking a more active, independent life” held up at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry in November. This is a pretty extensive conference area and my legs wouldn’t have managed for very long, so a mobility scooter seemed to be the only option. After much deliberation, I finally decided that I should at least take one for a spin, I mean I have no right to pass comment on mobility scooters until I’ve given them a go. Well the good news is I managed to manoeuvre myself around the Ricoh Arena, without mowing down anyone or anything for that matter, much to my relief. To be honest, I was pleasantly surprised at how much I got into zipping around on a scooter and it definitely meant that I could visit all the stands I was interested in.

So my final verdict was in fact that mobility scooters rock, it’s just a real shame about their lack of style. After my experience of driving one around for the day, I’d definitely not rule out using a mobility scooter in the future but I would have to give it a bit of an Enabled by Design twist - maybe even just some graffiti artwork to cheer it up a bit!

So while I’ve got my eye on helping to create the next generation of chopper-esque scooters, it would be great if anyone has any photos or footage of customised/suped up mobility aids that they’d like to share with us.

In the meantime, here’s a wee video of me demonstrating my much to be desired reversing skills. Enjoy!

There’s eleven days and counting to the second ever Social Innovation Camp. The shortlisted ideas have been announced and the race is on for each team to find the winning combination of geeks and creatives to make their project the champion of champions!

EbD’s Dominic Campbell submitted the shortlisted idea AccessCity and is very excited to be getting involved in the SI Camp experience once more. He just can’t get enough of it!

I’m dead chuffed that this idea has been chosen to take part, as it meets a social need that is very close to my heart. Having been using crutches over the past three years, sadly I am all too familiar with London and its accessibility issues. Over this time, I have given up using the tube (in my mind it no longer exists), as the possibility/unpredictability of having to climb mountains of stairs is enough to put me off. I am now very much a bus fanatic (in the travel sense only may I add), as I feel much more confident about what to expect.

This is only one of the many ways that I have to adapt, so that I can go about my day to day business and I’ve no doubt that a great number of people would identify with this. The feeling that certain parts of London are out of bounds to people who have mobility difficulties can be an isolating experience and extremely frustrating! However, it’s not just people with mobility difficulties that can find London a difficult place to get around. Injuries, carrying heavy shopping/luggage, prams/pushchairs can all add to the uphill struggle during the rush hour.

TfL’s journey planner makes a commendable effort to provide the public with accessibility information about public transport, unfortunately the theory does not always work in practice. Wouldn’t it be great if this information could be topped up with user generated comments and hints on how to make your journey as hassle-free as possible. Often, it is a case of trial and error to find out what works for you, but this stage could (possibly) be bypassed completely if there was a resource like AccessCity available to help you navigate the transport network with the advice of others.

The lovely thing about AccessCity is that it doesn’t have to be restricted to just travelling around London. Why not extend it to restaurants, bars, tourist attractions, shops etc? And of course over time AccessCity could be rolled out to cover all of the UK and beyond - the possibilities are endless!

I would hope that by increasing general awareness of accessibility issues faced by people, there would be more impetus for the government, organisations and businesses to make the world a more accessible place for everyone! After all as Dame Tanni Grey-Thomson has said:

‘London 2012 is aiming to go further than any previous Host City to ensure that both the Olympic and Paralympic Games are accessible for everyone’.

Go AccessCity! I’ll be rooting for you!

Denise x

Last week’s Social Innovation Meetup was the Hub (hee hee geddit?) of much nail biting and excitement, as the six ideas taking part in the second ever Social Innovation Camp were announced. Drum roll please….

Feast your eyes on this little lot:

Going Postal

Useful Visitors

AccessCity

Visualising Community Need

Good Gym

Vegsy

The brains behind each of the shortlisted entries were invited to take to the stage to talk about their idea and the inspiration, as well as share any other interesting tit bits that they might like to add. Vegsy’s James seemed very keen on proclaiming his (verging on obsessional) love of the common-or-garden spud! ; )

Once the excitement had finally died down, there was another surprise in store, as an unexpected twist was added to the proceedings. It was announced that there would be a wild card entry, which was up for the public vote - how very X-Factor?!?

The wild card entries were:

Footsie

One Click Organisations

Prepare to die

Carbon Co-op

Voting closed at midnight last night and today it has been announced that Carbon Co-op will be the lucky seventh entry to join the SI Camp crew.

Now that we know which entries have made it through the wilderness, the search is on for techie and creative campers to take each idea through to the finishing line. Have you got what it takes? If so, get in touch and sign up here.

I’d just like to say a big CONGRATULATIONS to all of the shortlisted entries! Well done and I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how you get on over the weekend.

See you soon SI Camp-ers and good luck!

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**STOP PRESS: EXCITING NEWS FOR ENABLED BY DESIGN**

As of today, we are officially a ‘dot org’ social start up!

Marking an important new chapter in the Enabled by Design story, today sees the launch of the Innovation Exchange’s Next Practice programme. EbD and 13 other third sector innovation projects have been chosen to work with the Innovation Exchange and develop our work, taking them on to the next level. Sat within the Independent Living half of the programme, Innovation Exchange will provide us with business coaching and access to related networks, some tailored support around our needs as a business, and also a helping hand with some seed investment through NESTA’s Innovation Exchange Fund.

We’re extremely excited to be given a helping hand to move things on to the next level. Its hard to believe its only just over 7 months now since we took part in (and won!) the first ever Social Innovation Camp - but equally amazing is how much you can fit into a short space of time. Since the Camp, we’ve been awarded level 1 funding from UnLtd which has allowed us to work with cutting edge organisations such as Headshift (social software) and ThinkPublic (user involvement) to really focus on getting users to engage with the project. We’ve also spent a lot of time building relationships with key organisations as well as individuals, developed our branding, and more recently even formally established EbD as a company.

We’re really excited about the opportunity the Next Practice programme gives us to focus on some priorities over the next 12-18 months. Most importantly of all we will be working hard to build a strong, interested and engaged community of users and designers around our new site, which is being developed as we speak. Other priorities include continuing to promote the project to a wide and diverse audience of individuals and organisations, champion the notion of universal design and personalisation within the health sector, and forge strong partnerships across a number of organisations that will sustain EbD well beyond the end of the programme.

And finally

We just wanted to take this opportunity to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who have helped us on our journey so far. From the place it all began at the Social Innovation Camp, to our funders UnLtd and Innovation Exchange and our partners Headshift, ThinkPublic and Brightone, you and a whole host of other amazing people have given so much support and encouragement we couldn’t have got here without you.

Photographs

We thought what better way to celebrate our start up status than to arrange a photo shoot to capture the essence of Enabled by Design. We’re really pleased with how they’ve turned out and the way they highlight the contrast between assistive equipment and modern stylish homes.

To get the full wow factor, please visit our Flickr site and take a look.

Enabled by Design is grateful to and would like to say a big thank you to:

The Disabled Living Foundation in its assistance with this shoot.

Kitchen show room: P&T Kitchens

Photographers:Emma Wright and Stephanie Smith

Ah, Sunday the 31st August 2008 will be a date forever etched in my mind. To many people it was just another wet and rainy weekend in London, all part of the poor excuse that was our British summer this year. But to Team EbD (Dominic Campbell, Gareth Clear and Glyn Parry) it was so much more! Our crack team of three finely honed boy racers took to the streets of Shoreditch, trike in hand, to compete in the most talked about sporting event of the year - the first ever Shoreditch Grand Prix.

OK, maybe I haven’t been completely truthful with you, when I said ‘finely honed’ maybe I meant poorly cloned - sorry guys! Of course, our heroes’ intentions were all good and extremely honourable, but I fear that they were a wee bit ill advised. Trying to assemble a children’s trike in the pouring rain an hour before the qualifiers, while nursing Saturday night hangovers probably isn’t exactly the ideal preparation for the endurance test of your life!

The good news is that Team EbD managed to get their act together just in the nick of time and make it to the starting line and the rest shall we say is history!

ITV’s London Tonight nicely captured the atmosphere, camaraderie and energy of the day:

Note: If you look very closely you can see EbD’s Dominic giving it his best shot : )

First place went to the Bash Creations team, who were sporting some rather fetching brightly coloured pants over leggings. Were these the secret of their success I hear you ask, who knows, but they were definitely in it to win it! Despite their best efforts, Team EbD only managed to scrape in at 24th place ahead of one other team (well not counting the two teams that unfortunately didn’t manage to complete the race!). Although I’ve been teasing Team EbD about their trike cycling prowess (or should I say lack of it?), I’d just like to say that I’m extremely proud of Team EbD for stepping up to the mark - thanks guys, you’ll always be my heroes!

And there’s always next year - that is if your saddle sore behinds have forgiven you by then - hee hee!

Well done to everyone involved who worked so hard to make the day such a success and so much fun, and a massive THANK YOU to everyone who so kindly supported EbD by coming to cheer us on and sponsor us! The totals have now been counted and EbD managed to raise a grand total of £146.16 through sponsorship and the trike auction held after the event. This has been put to very good use to register Enabled by Design as a fully fledged company, so we’re now very much “official” and it’s all thanks to you!

We just HAD to share this with you - enjoy!

Photos: re:think

Last month London was transformed into an eclectic shrine to all things design as the annual London Design Festival came to town. A homage to the boundless talents of the London design community, the festival hosted 150 events over eleven days showcasing everything from architecture to industrial and graphic design.

One of the events that caught my eye was the launch of a book called re:think. The book is a compendium of ideas, illustrations and photographs in response to the simple enough question: What would you like to redesign? Well, when I say simple enough, that’s how it first seemed at least on the surface. However, after a while your imagination can run away with you and you soon realise that the possibilities are endless! And that’s exactly what the book’s research team soon found….

re:think is a fun and amusing look at how the world could be if everything and anything could be redesigned just to your liking. From a rollercoaster tube ride to Derek the Doggy-Do-Bot (a robot designed to clean up after man’s best friend has finished doing his business!). All of this may seem just a little silly, but that’s what makes it all so much fun!

And not only is it fun, but all this creative craziness got me thinking as well (dangerous I know…):

1. Just because something has already been designed a certain way, it doesn’t mean that’s the way it should always stay. The development of new products is great but sometimes redesign can be even better.

2. Design can be fun, especially when people come together to collaborate and share ideas.

re:think is an ongoing project and the team are thirsty for more entertaining ideas, so if you’ve got a great new idea, no matter how big or small, silly or serious they’d love to hear from you - so why not share your idea here.

Enabled by Design loves the re:think project. It’s fun, warm and passionate about making those little changes that mean so much - just like EbD! It just goes to show that design can be used in very real and positive ways to make people’s lives easier, without losing the aesthetics or fun.

More of this sort of thing we say!

As you all know by now, Social Innovation Camp was the event that gave birth to Enabled by Design. It helped transform my idea from a few scribbles on a piece of paper to a social enterprise on a mission. Loads of exciting things have happened since the first SI Camp back in April 2008, and none of it would have been possible without the phenomenon that is SI Camp.

And now SI Camp has put out their call for ideas for the second installment of this fun and inspiring event, which I highly recommend!

For those not familiar with the concept of SI Camp, who better to explain it than Anna Maybank, the director of SI Camp herself:

“From 5th - 7th December, we’re bringing together some of the UK’s most talented web developers and designers with those at the sharp end of social change to build six web-based tools to change the world. Anyone can enter an idea to be developed at the event. The competition closes on Friday 7th November 2008″

To mark this auspicious occasion I agreed to talk a bit about my experiences of SI Camp and the inspiration behind Enabled by Design.

If all of this sounds like just your cup of tea, drop SI Camp a line to enter your idea. Whether you’re a geek, designer or ideas person, I really recommend getting involved! And remember the closing date for all ideas/entries is 7th November 2008 so while you’ve got about a month it comes round quickly trust me - so best get your skates on (and don’t forget your thinking cap)!

* UPDATE * - Audio files of the speakers at Scripting Enabled are now available here.

If you had asked me back in January this year if I could ever imagine speaking in front of 100 people, the answer would have been most definitely no! But that was exactly what I did on Friday, when I was invited to speak at Scripting Enabled at the London Metropolitan University.

Scripting Enabled was a two day event, aimed at breaking down barriers between disabled users and the social web. Day one’s format was in keeping with the more traditional conference structure and was followed on day two by a total geek out hackathon. Both days complemented each other nicely - day one dedicated to exploring the barriers that disabled users can come up against when using the web followed up on day two by hackers (armed with their new found knowledge) looking at ways of developing accessible web tools that would reduce some of the hurdles already out there.

I was first up to speak, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t feeling nervous, but it was too late to back out now! So, I took a deep breath and made my way on to the stage….

I have Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and it was my job to explain how having a variable condition like MS can at times make it difficult to use the web. As well as this, I was keen to explain the concept of universal design and how I feel that inclusive web design is definitely the way forward.

The video footage from the day will be available in the near future, but in the mean time here are the slides that accompanied my talk:

Once I’d done my bit, I was quite relieved to be able to take a seat and concentrate on what the other speakers had to say. I have to admit it all seems a bit of a blur now, so I’ll be intrigued to watch the film back and see exactly what I said on the day.

Each speaker focused on a different aspect of the diverse barriers that people can face when navigating the internet. Each talk was given from a completely different perspective, some including interviews/video clips to hit home exactly what they were talking about. By the end of it though everyone who took part in the day, including the speakers and organisers, went home having learnt something new and inspiring:

Kath Moonan of Abilitynet spoke about the problems and frustrations people dealing with a wide range of disabilities often encounter when using the web.

Kath Moonan - Why I Hate the Interweb!

Antonia Hyde explained the impact web design can have on the user experience of people with learning disabilities.

Antonia Hyde - Online Content for People with Learning Disabilities

Jonathan Hyde of the BBC and Phil Teare gave a joint presentation exploring the symptoms and barriers caused by Dyslexia and looked at how some of these barriers can be removed.

Jonathan Hyde - Dyslexia Barriers

Artur Ortega and Leonie Watson gave an informative talk and demonstration of the use of screen readers. I must admit the techie stuff was way over my head, but this was the first time I’d seen a screen reader in action and I was in awe of what a massive difference this tool can make to people’s lives.

For more information, you can get the complete lowdown on Scripting Enabled here.

EbD would like to thank everyone that has shown an interest in taking part in our workshop on 22nd September. THANK YOU! It was great to hear from you all - we were dead excited to hear from people who use assistive equipment, as well as designers and health care professionals - all passionate about getting involved to talk about their experiences and ideas.

Having spoken to many of you, we soon realised that it would be best to defer our focus group, while we looked at alternative more accessible options. We are currently looking at ways of taking our focus group to the people - and so the ‘EbD Roadshow’ is born, as well as an adapted online focus group to involve as many people as possible. After all, we’re really interested in what you’ve got to say!

So let us know if you’ve got any thoughts or would like to be involved in future EbD focus group events.

We’ll keep you posted!

Denise x