Legless in Dublin

For a couple of years now Dublin-based Louise Bruton has been writing about music, pop culture and accessibility on her own blog, for the Irish Times and for a host of other publications. She started using a wheelchair two years ago and before that used crutches full-time, giving her more experience than most of how easy (or difficult) it is to get around Dublin when mobility is impaired. To this end, she's begun Legless in Dublin, a blog reviewing the various cafes, pubs, venues and shops she finds herself in, detailing things such as how easy it is to get through doors, whether everything you need is on the ground floor or not (and whether there's a lift to take you upstairs and down), what surfaces she encounters (wet marble will impair even the most mobile of us, after all), access to proper sized bathrooms, helpfulness of staff and more. All this with a healthy dose of humour means Legless in Dublin is a really enjoyable as well as a really useful read.

Design for Children

This article was first published in Architecture Ireland #269

To date, this column has always focussed on design for adults, be it the visual communications us adults consume, the furniture we sit on, the lights we read under or the events we attend. But it's not just the older and taller members of society that use design, and with the recent Children's Books Ireland (CBI) conference in Light House Cinema, it seemed apt to take a closer look at design for children. In fact, when we consider the importance we place on instilling a love of reading, or sport, or music, or nature at a young age, should we not be doing the same with well-considered, attractive design too?

Design and Healthcare

This article was first published in Architecture Ireland #261

The Rise and Rise of Medical Device Design in Ireland
You may not have known it, but a design discipline experiencing real growth and success here in Ireland is that of medical device design. The field of development and manufacture of medical technology in this country is especially strong, and a short visit to the Irish Medical Device Association’s website will show you some startling – and impressive – statistics on the area’s growth. There are approximately 200 companies here involved in developing, manufacturing and marketing a diverse range of products and services such as disposable wound care products, precision metal implants including pacemakers, orthopaedic implants, diagnostics, contact lenses and stents. Almost half of these companies are Irish-owned, and many are global leaders. Ireland is Europe’s second-biggest exporter of medical technology, and when so many other Irish exports have been falling dramatically in recent years our medical exports have been growing and growing.

Design For All

Last week I attended the launch of a universal design resource in Dublin. A publication by the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design (CEUD) and the National Disability Authority (NDA), 'Building for Everyone' is a set of booklets giving a comprehensive guide to how to design a building or urban space according to the principles of universal design. Not solely a launch with a speech from the relevant government minister (this time round it was Phil Hogan, Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government), the event also brought together a number of speakers who helped stress the importance of universal design across all scales.