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Accessibility Is Freedom

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  • How Easy Read Came to Be

    How Easy Read Came to Be

    Easy Read benefits everyone. Now we know it a bit — let me share how it came to be. It wasn’t created by one person. Easy Read grew from a community — people with intellectual disabilities and their allies fighting for the right to access information. In the 1970s and 80s, People First self-advocacy groups organised under “Nothing About Us Without Us,” demanding information they could access for themselves. In the 1990s, NHS England’s Karl and Pete noticed people with intellectual disabilities understood photos better than symbols — sparking the use of real photographs in Easy Read. 2001: Valuing People…

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  • Easy Read: What Design Cannot Do Without

    Easy Read: What Design Cannot Do Without

    Have you ever opened a government document and felt like it was written in an alien language? I have. We have all read something and felt lost — not because we are not smart, but because the text was poorly designed. Easy Read is writing that is easy to read and understand. Inclusion Europe created it so people with intellectual disabilities can access important information on their own. But here is the beauty — everyone gets it. Older adults. People learning a new language. Anyone in a hurry. This is the curb cut effect. Design for those who need it…

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  • To become a Japanese train driver – not born skilled, but built by a system

    To become a Japanese train driver – not born skilled, but built by a system

    Start with a picture of a Japanese train driver in the cab — pointing at every signal, calling out every speed, every sign loudly. This is “shisa kanko,” the point-and-call technique studied by Japan’s RTRI. Research found it reduces human error by up to 85%. But shisa kanko is just the end result. Getting there takes over 10 years: 2 years as a station worker → 2 years as a train controller → several years driving regular trains → passing a national license exam → finally driving the Shinkansen. Every step uses simulators, on-the-job training, and strict exams. No shortcuts.…

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  • Small City in Canada Sets Accessibility Standards That Even Major Universities Adopt

    Small City in Canada Sets Accessibility Standards That Even Major Universities Adopt

    London, Ontario — a mid-sized Canadian city with about 420,000 people. Not the first place you’d think of when it comes to inclusive design. But this city created something that the University of Toronto, one of Canada’s top universities, chose to adopt as its own standard. It all started with a Facilities Design Guideline — a manual for designing accessible spaces. The city developed it under Ontario’s AODA law, which aims to make the entire province fully accessible by 2025. Its core principles: independence, dignity, integration, and equality of opportunity. What makes this guideline special? It wasn’t just written to…

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