Towards Belonging...

Hi,

I’d like to introduce myself. My name is Katy Deacon and I’ve been a wheelchair user since 2012. I have multiple sclerosis, which has caused Spinal Injuries, meaning I have lesions at C2-C6, T8 and T9. I also have significant damage to my left optic nerve, so I have to wear a frosted lens on my glasses.

 As well as all of that, I am an engineer. I started my career as an avionic apprentice at British Airways, fixing jumbo jets. Life was brilliant! After 9/11 the aviation world changed dramatically and I had to find another job. I took my skills into building services and became a chartered electrical engineer. I designed school rewires, fire alarms, security systems until I found my real love which was designing and installing renewable energy systems. 

My first fire alarm was thrown out by my boss because I had made sure that every room had a red flashing light in it, to help all the deaf people understand there was a fire. He told me that I was costing my client too much money and if the school wanted to have red flashing lights, they could put them in afterwards.

Now, having lived in the world for 12 years in Wheelchair, the understanding of engineers to the needs of disabled people is supremely obvious. They just don’t get it. 

So, I set up a company called Towards Belonging Limited https://towardsbelonging.co.uk/ 

Have a look at the website, to find out more, but the aim of my company is to bridge the gap between the disabled community and the engineering industry. We speak to engineers to help them understand how they can make the world more inclusive and accessible for everyone. We also try to help disabled people speak to engineers and designers, so that they can put their point across.

I will speak more about this in future blog posts, but today I just wanted to let you know that this week I am starting and new chapter in the world of Towards Belonging Limited. I have been selected by the Royal Academy of Engineering to be Visiting Professor at the University of Huddersfield and Aston University, specialising in inclusive engineering design.

My aim over the next three years is to help the universities and students develop an inclusive engineering design framework that they can use in every design, so that all of the designs whether at university or out in the workplace have inclusive engineering at their foundations.

I will also be sharing lived experience examples with the students across both universities. This will be done with videos from disabled people, and through videos I make from my Wheelchair to help the students and the universities understand that disabled people are real and the problems we face are made worse because engineers do not design with everyone in mind.

I’m really pleased to be able to share my journey with you on the All 4 Inclusion platform. I’ll keep you updated with my progress and I look forward to reading your comments 💜

#InclusionMatters #InclusiveEngineering