Designing for dignity
Influencing the brief
The easiest and cheapest time to get the design right is at the beginning. As the design progresses the cost of re-work increases.
- Tell your architect or designer that you want to ensure that the retail experience is really accessible and dignified. Often they will assume that people just want to comply with minimum standards.
- Ask retail architects to come up with ideas and suggestions for better accessibility.
- If your architect has access to it, ask for fly-through technology to come up with some fly-through images at standing and wheelchair height to experience the space and sight-lines from different perspectives.
- Include people using wheelchairs or mobility devices in concept design drawings, including elevations, to demonstrate the accessibility of retail premises.
