Early last month we launched the search for an online community manager
extraordinaire to join our small, yet (we like to think) perfectly
formed team at Enabled by Design. We certainly weren’t disappointed with
the quality and diversity of applications, so thank you to everyone who
took the time and effort to apply!
After much umming and aahing, we’d managed to narrow the applications down to the final four, but were hard pressed to pick out the
one. So to help us make the final decision, we decided to have a good
old fashioned chat over the phone with each person, to find out what
really makes them tick.
The final four certainly were an impressive bunch and it really wasn’t an easy task to choose between them, but all the same a decision had to be made! So without further ado, please let me introduce our new online community managers, who will be sharing the role. Drum roll please, Ta Dah!
First up (and in no particular order) meet Kaliya:
Name: Kaliya Franklin (AKA BendyGirl)
Location: Wirral
About:
Disability rights blogger and sofa based activist with a peculiar interest in welfare rights and accessible toilets
Loves: Cats, chocolate and cheesy chips
Hates: Bullies and bad bogs
Why Enabled by Design?
Becoming disabled is a difficult and traumatic process, compounded by a lack of unattractive looking assistive products. Most equipment or technology marketed to disabled people is ugly enough to make you shudder, no-one wants their home to look like a hospital environment, particularly not younger people. I wanted wrist braces that would shout ‘bling’ but all I could find were items only fit to make the NHS glasses of bygone eras look like design classics. It was depressing.
Finding out about Enabled by Design was really exciting after so many negative experiences of assistive products. I hope one day people will look back and wonder why we didn’t adopt universal design sooner and celebrate organisations like Enabled by Design for the contribution they made towards access for all.
—–
Next up and joining Kaliya is Claire:
Name: Claire Litt
Location: Selby
About:
I am a wobbly legged
32 year old freelance interior and exhibition designer with a passion
for anything design related. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis
(MS) in 2002 and have looked drunk ever since. (You should see me after a
couple of glasses of Pinot Grigio). I live with Chris who I met when I
advertised for a wobbly legged Yorkshire man on the MS Society website.
Loves: My
Switch Stick (it’s pink and spotty), Alan Davies (He’s yummilicious),
shopping (what girl doesn’t), chocolate (again, what girl doesn’t),
Pilates (I have a washboard stomach to die for), Diarmuid Gavin
(fabulous landscape designer) and seeing one of your designs in the
flesh.
Hates: Jimmy Carr (he’s so full of it), vegetables
(who doesn’t?), falling into gorse bushes (9 spelks later), people who
don’t think outside of the box and football commentators with their
droning voices!
Why Enabled by Design?
I’d read about
Enabled by Design a couple of years ago and I was inspired, why should
we put up with basic, boring mobility aids and products? Certainly as
an interior designer I can’t think of anything worse, particularly when I get my minimalist ‘Grand Designs’ style house! I wasn’t looking
for more work, but how could I not work for a website I feel has so
much potential. I often find myself looking at products and trying to
improve the design or coming up with ideas, so I thought I was well
suited. My current example is the humble whirly-gig. Why do we have to
take the washing in when it starts raining? Why hasn’t someone designed a
cover for it yet? Also I get to read about innovative products from the Betterware
catalogue, which is another strange obsession of mine…
—–
We felt that choosing two people to share the role would be an added bonus to the Enabled by Design community, as they say “two heads are better than one!”. Twice the knowledge, twice the ideas and we hope twice the fun too!
So we’d just like to give a warm WELCOME to our new team members and we’re really looking forward to their contributions to the Enabled by Design community!
Team EbD x
PS. Our new online community managers will be starting next week, so why not say hello or ask them a question in the comment box below : )