MARCIA RESEARCH FINAL REPORT May 2018 Prepared for the City of Bunbury By Adam Johnson PhD Candidate, Edith Cowan University Table of Contents Overview of Recommendations ................................................................................................................ 4 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Origins of MARCIA ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Accessible Cities – A Global and National Priority ..................................................................................... 7 Developing the Research Project .............................................................................................................. 8 Introducing the Researchers (Research Group Participants) .................................................................... 9 Principles informing the MARCIA research and recommendations ........................................................ 10 Explanation of the Principles ................................................................................................................... 11 ‘Design’ of community as a major barrier and facilitator to disability access and inclusion .................. 13 Inclusive design ....................................................................................................................................... 15 RESEARCH DATA COLLECTION ................................................................................................................. 17 PROGRESS SINCE MARCIA WAS ADOPTED .............................................................................................. 18 FINDINGS FROM THE RESEARCH ............................................................................................................. 20 FINDING 1: Proficiency in inclusive design .......................................................................................... 20 FINDING 2: Technical support for inclusive design ............................................................................. 22 FINDING 3: Systems and accountability for inclusive design .............................................................. 24 FINDING 4: Involvement of people with disabilities in co-design ....................................................... 26 FINDING 5: Best-practice in inclusive design ....................................................................................... 29 FINDING 6: Addressing existing barriers to disability access .............................................................. 30 RECOMMENDATIONS .............................................................................................................................. 31 RECOMMENDATION 1: Train for inclusive design ............................................................................... 32 RECOMMENDATION 2: Increase technical support for inclusive design ............................................ 33 RECOMMENDATION 3: Improve benchmarks, checklists and accountability for inclusive design ..... 34 RECOMMENDATION 4: Involve people with disabilities as partners in co-design .............................. 36 RECOMMENDATION 5: Promote sharing of best practice in inclusive design .................................... 37 RECOMMENDATION 6: Retrofit to remove existing barriers to community access and inclusion ..... 38 Financial Implications for City of Bunbury .............................................................................................. 39 Discussion the Recommendations: suggestions for implementation ..................................................... 40 DISCUSSION 1: CBD Streetscape Guide ............................................................................................... 40 DISCUSSION 2: Public Open Space Strategy ........................................................................................ 43 DISCUSSION 3: Purchasing and tendering ........................................................................................... 46 DISCUSSION 4: Events.......................................................................................................................... 47 DISCUSSION 5: Development Applications ......................................................................................... 50 MARCIA Research Full Report 2018 2. DISCUSSION 6: Community Engagement ............................................................................................ 52 DISCUSSION 7: Employment of People with Disabilities ..................................................................... 54 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................................... 55 Appendices .............................................................................................................................................. 57 MARCIA Research Full Report 2018 3. Overview of Recommendations RECOMMENDATION 1: That the City of Bunbury considers strategies for Train for inclusive design increasing the proficiency of staff members and contractors in the inclusive design of facilities, services and events RECOMMENDATION 2: That the City of Bunbury considers strategies for Increase technical support increasing the availability of technical support for for inclusive design inclusive design to staff, contractors and external organisations involved in the design of facilities, services and events. RECOMMENDATION 3: That the City of Bunbury considers strategies for Improve benchmarks, improving benchmarks, checklists and other checklists & accountability accountability measures related to inclusive design. for inclusive design RECOMMENDATION 4: That businesses, community organisations and the City of Involve people with Bunbury consider joint strategies for promoting the use disabilities as partners in co- of co-design, whereby people with disabilities become actively involved as partners in the design of facilities, design services and events. RECOMMENDATION 5: That businesses, community organisations and the City of Promote sharing of best Bunbury consider joint strategies to promote recognition practice in inclusive design and sharing of best practice in inclusive design. RECOMMENDATION 6: That businesses, community organisations and the City of Retrofit to remove existing Bunbury consider joint strategies for addressing existing barriers to community barriers to disability access and inclusion in Bunbury, created by traditional design practices. access and inclusion Full details regarding each recommendation are contained in the section titled ‘Recommendations’. Note: a one-page summary of the Research Findings can be found in Appendix 3 MARCIA Research Full Report 2018 4. INTRODUCTION MARCIA is a whole-of-community aspiration to make Bunbury the Most Accessible Regional City in Australia, and was adopted by the City of Bunbury in 2014 at the recommendation of their Community Access Committee. The City then partnered with Edith Cowan University to conduct research into the barriers and facilitators to access and inclusion in Bunbury, that could be used to inform the progress of the MARCIA aspiration. This report is the result of a 12-month study conducted by a group of researchers, made up of people with lived experience of disability and facilitated by a PhD student. The researchers spent time analysing the factors impacting on disability access and inclusion in the community, and concluded that most barriers are introduced at the design stage of facilities, services and events. They observed that the product of design was significantly impacted by the quality of the process of design, and the awareness levels of the people responsible for design. The researchers set about identifying key design stakeholders working within one of three types of organisations – Council, businesses and community organisations, and engaged them as participants in the study. The researchers engaged in dialogue with design staff members to gain insight into how the current systems, policies and processes connected to design might allow designers to inadvertently create barriers to access and inclusion, and what safeguards might be embedded into the design process (such as benchmarks, checklists and accountability measures) to improve design outcomes. The researchers also sought to understand how designers might be better supported and equipped to design in ways that eliminate barriers, using principles of ‘inclusive design’. In particular, they looked at what access designers had to training and technical support for inclusive design, and how co-design with people with disabilities might be facilitated to improve the inclusive qualities of design outcomes. This report details the research process and the principles underpinning the research, and outlines the key findings and recommendations. This report also provides some detailed suggestions for how the recommendations might be implemented by the City of Bunbury as the key driver of MARCIA. MARCIA Research Full Report 2018 5. Origins of MARCIA MARCIA was first conceived by the City of Bunbury’s Community Access Committee in 2013 when members of the Committee began to inquire about how Bunbury compared, in terms of disability access and inclusion to other similar-sized regional cities in Western Australia (such as Geraldton, Albany