Log in
Praised in the International Design for All Foundation Awards 2013 as "rigorous, empathic and very thoughtful", Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors (I'DGO) has changed both policy and practice relating to the design of outdoor environments. Focusing on meeting the needs of older people and disabled people, the consortium's practical guidance has been utilised locally, nationally and internationally by bodies ranging from the UK Department for Transport to the World Health Organization. Through media such as the British Science Festival and the BBC, the researchers have promoted the need for age-friendly design to the public, including older stakeholders. Their findings have impacted upon industry in a cross-cutting way, underpinning the training of professionals, from occupational therapists to urban designers and have changed people's lives for the better, supporting older people and disabled people to go out more through developing user led approaches to shaping outdoor environments.
We have contributed, nationally and internationally, to a changing approach, content and implementation of planning policy by including the needs of our ageing society in streetscape design, to address the requirements of older people, benefitting their independence, welfare and quality of life. In the UK 23% of the population is projected to be aged over 65 by 2035, according to the Office of National Statistics (2010). Our focus upon the needs of an ageing society has been adopted as part of the skills and knowledge development agenda in sustainable planning through the Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI). Tools have been developed, policy informed and reformed, and our findings included in a House of Lords report on assistive technology for older people.
Human-computer usability research within the university's Sensory Disabilities Research Unit (1993-2002) led to the construction of accessibility guidelines that are widely used, with an estimated reach to a maximum of 30 million people in the EU. PAS 78: Guide to Good Practice in Commissioning Accessible Websites and BSI BS8788 Web Accessibility Code of Practice met 2010 web accessibility law in the UK and subsequent EU legislation. Similarly, BS EN 15823:2010: Braille on Packaging for Medicinal Products met UK, EU and International Standards for Braille on medicine packaging. Further research resulted in award-winning guides for blind users of Windows software that improves accessibility to work.
Research into participative practice and well-being with older people has contributed directly to the development and application of an ethic of care in policy and service delivery, as well as to practices in older people's participation, locally, nationally and internationally. The research has directly impacted on practitioners and practice developments in services for older people, with learning resources (co-designed with practitioners and older people) being used in professional education and training across the UK and in New Zealand. An innovative participatory methodology has both enhanced older people's participation locally and been adopted more widely by university community research collaborators working to enhance older people's citizenship and well-being (eg in Netherlands). Research has directly informed policy concerning older people's needs assessments by recognising the centrality of relationships to well-being in older age. The well-being research involving collaboration with service users and providers has been described as `exemplary' by the leading national charity Age UK.
The project:
Research undertaken at Keele has made the social exclusion of older people visible to opinion- leaders and policy makers, helping to shape their perceptions of ageing. These changes in attitude have contributed to transforming provision for older people and promoting inter-generational interaction within local communities through both policy and practice, in both national and local government. The research has had a direct impact on national government policies, and has also coalesced into national campaigns to improve older people's lives. Regional impacts initially focussed on making Manchester an `age-friendly city' which has subsequently been used as a model for other local councils across the country.
The O4O action research project generated positive impacts for older people living in some of Europe's most remote and rural areas. It helped to shift perceptions of older people as a burden on society and towards recognition of the value they can bring to their communities as well as their potential to be involved in services design and delivery. The project underpinned the development of several older people's services that have generated employment opportunities and health/wellbeing improvement. The project challenged some of the assumptions in social enterprise/co-production policy and helped to identify the types of support that older people, and rural communities more widely, may need in order to develop their own service delivery organisations. O4O was recognised by the European Commission (EC) for its contribution to addressing the challenge of demographic change and supporting active aging.
Research at Newcastle has made a significant contribution to the public services modernisation agenda in the areas of inter-agency working and information-sharing. The research showed that effective information-sharing required not just that different information systems are made compatible with each other, but also that people from different professional cultures are enabled to work together through a common understanding of information governance issues. In active collaboration with a range of service providers, a number of processes and tools were developed for the significant benefit of service users. They have been implemented in a variety of policy settings, including children's services and adult social care, and have informed current programmes funded by the UK government.
Organisations in the social housing sector have a model of how to use information to monitor the outcomes of their activities. Drawing on research which places information in its organisational context, the mechanism of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships has been used to enable Nottingham City Homes to pioneer the evaluation of its activities focusing on a major investment programme called Decent Homes. Cited in Parliamentary debates, not only has the impact shifted the strategic direction of the organisation's activities, but also it has been adopted as a model of best practice for the sector.
Research in Sheffield since 1993 has focused on developing information-rich systems and services from a user-oriented perspective rather than a more technology-driven approach. This has ranged from the development of theoretical models that describe information behaviour and processes, to the design and evaluation of information-rich systems and services that are based on information behaviour models and that involve end users throughout the design process. The impact includes: (1) enhancements in the practices adopted in systems development within cultural heritage institutions (The National Archives, UK) and libraries (Online Computer Library Centre, US; M25 Consortium of Academic Libraries, UK), (2) improved support for further development and commercialisation of technologies by IT companies (Gnowsis, Austria; Intempra, Italy), and (3) downstream impacts in the form of knowledge transfer leading to new projects to further develop existing technologies and systems (led by Language Technology Centre, UK).