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JORDELLE AKINOLA: Good evening, everyone. My name is

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Jordelle Akinola, and I'm the Staff

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Disability Advisor within the Equality

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and Diversity Unit at the

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University of Oxford. And it's my honour

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to welcome you to the 11th annual

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Disability Lecture. It's wonderful to see

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so many of you here in person and to have

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so many people online and it's wonderful

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to be here at the Blavatnik School of

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Government. Thank you for hosting us, and

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it's great to be here. It's

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wonderful to know that we have

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registrations from as far as Canada and

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New Zealand. We hope you have a wonderful

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experience tonight and it really is a

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great opportunity to hear about what great

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advancements are happening within

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the sector of disability, and engage in

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some awareness-raising and some heart-felt

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discussions. Before we get started, there

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are some housekeeping notes on

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accessibility and participation for

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today's session to make you aware of.

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Firstly, for our online attendees, we

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have spotlighted the British Sign

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Language interpreters for the video feed,

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so they should remain clearly visible on

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your screen throughout the session

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without you needing to do any

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adjustments. So hopefully everybody can

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see them online, but please let us

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know if there are any technical glitches

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and we can get our moderators to help.

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And we also have live captioning

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available. You can turn these on by

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clicking CC, and 'live transcript', or 'show

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captions' button, typically found in

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your Zoom control bar. Once captions are

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active, if you need to adjust the

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appearance, such as the text size or the

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colour, just click the small upward arrow

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next to the CC button, and look out for

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'subtitle settings' or 'caption settings'.

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If there are any problems, again, please

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do let us know online and one of our

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moderators will be able to help. For

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those joining us here in the room, you

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will see the BSL interpreters are

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displayed on the screen, and we also have

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an induction loop system for audio

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assistance for those who may require it.

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We are not expecting any fire drills, so

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if you do hear any alarms, the fire exits

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are highlighted to the left and to the

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right, but we will be available to help

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anybody who has any assistance needs.

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Toilets are located outside again.

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Please just signal to myself or any of

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my colleagues, and we will provide

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assistance and direction. Please

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note that today's session is being

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recorded, and we have been asked to

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provide these, so the podcast details will

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be circulated after the session.

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I now have the privilege of handing over

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to our Vice Chancellor, Professor Irene

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Tracey. Thank you.

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PROF. IRENE TRACEY: Well thank you so much, and a very

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good evening, everybody. to this, as

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mentioned, the 2025 Disability Lecture,

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'Building an environment for all'. And I'd

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just mention, this is the 11th one in

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the series at the University, and the

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third to feature British Sign Language

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interpretation. And I will try and speak

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slowly in order to help this wonderful

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woman on my right, because I speak very

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quickly normally. The event is

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organised by the Disability Advisory

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Group and the Equality and Diversity

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Unit, and I'm very grateful to all the

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work they do in this hugely important

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area for the University, so thank you to

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them; and thank you also for the gracious

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hosting by the Blavatnik School of

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Government for the second consecutive year,

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the really wonderful environment to do

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this in. I probably don't need to

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tell you, but it's important for us to

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be reminded of just where things are at,

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in this space of our work, to make sure we

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build an environment for all. 24% of

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the UK population are disabled.

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So, as a microcosm of society, here in the

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University, we expect that the percentage

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of disabled colleagues, students and

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visitors here, will likely be similar.

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This means at any given time,

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disabled people will be working and

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studying in our buildings or indeed

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visiting them to learn more about their

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world. If our spaces are going to be

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inclusive and accessible, disabled

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colleagues will be better able to focus

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on their research, teaching, their tasks,

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their learning, rather than on the impact

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of a disability. As you know, the

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Equality Act of 2010 states that we have

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a duty to anticipate the needs of disabled

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people and to be inclusive in all areas

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of our work, to remove or minimise

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disadvantages, and meet the needs of those

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with protected characteristics. A visible

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strand of this work is the

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accessibility of our buildings. Now as

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you know, our estate is very large:

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over 260 buildings,

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67 of them listed. And it

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includes some of the most iconic spaces

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in the city. Unsurprisingly, the

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idea of accessibility has been evolving,

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since the early 1400s: Bodleian

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Library, through to the 1800s: the Natural

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History Museum, and in the 1900s,

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with the Dyson Perrins Laboratory. Estates

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Services work to ensure our legal

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compliance with accessibility

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regulations both in refurbishment of

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historical buildings and in new projects

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such as the Life and Mind Building and

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the Schwarzman Centre just behind here.

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Alongside the features of the building

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itself, operations and procedures

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must support independent access and use

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for all occupants, including visitors.

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The challenges are not Insignificant: I

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know that well, having been Head of a

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13th- century college when I was Warden of

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Merton. But we remain committed to the

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University's Equality Policy of

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non-discrimination and the advancement of

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equality. The University does not

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consider compliance with regulations as

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sufficient. Oxford's Accessibilty Design

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Philosophy Document goes beyond

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Government regulations, aiming for an

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inclusive environment where all can

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independently access and use facilities.

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The key word here is 'independently'.

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Maximising independent access for

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disabled people is at the heart of

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inclusive design. Now, how

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independent access can be made to work in

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the complex environment of Oxford is the

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theme of this year's speaker, Professor

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Sam Howison, a dear colleague

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and, I hope I may say, friend to Sam.

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Sam's research interests are in

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mathematical modelling and applications

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of differential equations in a wide

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variety of topics. Recent projects

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include models of heat transfer in

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electrochemical furnaces, melting of

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Arctic sea ice and the microstructure

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of the bitcoin markets. More recently,

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he has served

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magnificently and as a good citizen

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as Head of the Oxford Mathematical,

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Physical and Life Sciences Division,

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a very active Member of Council, and a

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great mentor to many in this institution

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and at his College of Christ Church. He is

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also active in several national

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organisations, including the new Academy

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of Mathematical Sciences. But perhaps

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less well-known is his role in the Oxford

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Mathematics YouTube channel, in the

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Mathematical Toy Stories and other

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videos which demonstrates his deep

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interest in using mathematics to help

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everyone understand the world around

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them. Sam is currently enjoying

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a return to teaching at Christ Church and

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at the Mathematical Institute. However,

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it is notable that he was Head of the

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Mathematical Institute during the

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construction of its current beautiful

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home, the new Andrew Wiles Building,

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here in the very Radcliffe

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Observatory Quarter where we're

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having tonight's lecture. This and

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his own lived experience at Oxford gives

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him particular insights into what makes a

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building accessible and user-friendly.

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Sam, thank you for everything you have

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done for this collegiate University, and

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thank you so much for your contributions

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to teaching and research, but thank you

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especially for coming to speak and share

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your thoughts with us tonight. Please a

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give round of applause and welcome him.

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PROF. SAM HOWISON: Thank you, Irene.

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Well.

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Irene, thank you so much for that

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introduction, which has sort of

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said everything I was going to say, so...

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maybe we could all go to the pub,

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perhaps. No.

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It is a great honour to give this lecture.

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It's a subject which I have

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personal connections with, as people

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will know. But it's also a subject

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that I feel very strongly about

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for many, many reasons, all of which

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I think Irene has just outlined so very

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eloquently that I won't repeat them.

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So I want

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first perhaps, well, first I want to

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just thank the organisers also for

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inviting me, because Catherine and her

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team have done a tremendous job in

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organising, bringing this lecture

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together and in

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getting the whole thing going.

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So let me go first

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to my first slide. I

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want to mention some people at the

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beginning of this, because I want to pay

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some tributes. I want to

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pay a tribute to two people

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who have exemplified in

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many ways things that have been very

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important for me personally and

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generally. The first is Professor Ian

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Shipsey, who you will see on the left

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here. Ian,

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was the Head of the Physics Department

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when I was head of MPLS, so I worked with

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him quite closely. He

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was a passionate and dedicated physicist,

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a very larger-than-life character,

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who... very sadly died

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suddenly last November. But I mention him

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in particular here because in

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mid-life, he lost all his hearing,

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suddenly, through illness. And that is

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a very traumatic thing indeed to happen

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to somebody, at that or any stage in their

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life, as that may be in mid-career with a young

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child and so on. He

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was not daunted. He went in due course

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and got himself cochlear implants (and

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we'll come to those in a moment) and went

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on to have a career as a highly

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successful physicist, an FRS and so on.

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He is someone that we miss a lot.

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On the right on this slide is another

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Ian, another Professor Ian. This is Ian

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Galway Taylor. Known as Professor

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Taylor in my family, he was

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on the Faculty in

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Manchester in the Department of Audiology,

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where I was born in that great city

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a very long time ago, and he

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was, I think, a real pioneer

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in the education of

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Deaf children, in particular.

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And I was born with

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congenital deafness, verging on profound

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deafness. So, that was

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- I think if I had been born anywhere other

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00:11:38,274 --> 00:11:40,674
than Manchester in the UK, at that time, I

274
00:11:40,674 --> 00:11:42,994
might have sunk without trace. Even in

275
00:11:42,994 --> 00:11:45,834
London. But it was an immense

276
00:11:45,834 --> 00:11:48,114
stroke of good fortune that I was

277
00:11:48,914 --> 00:11:50,634
I was able to have access to their early

278
00:11:50,674 --> 00:11:53,634
research. And one of the things that he

279
00:11:54,474 --> 00:11:56,674
particularly insisted on was that

280
00:11:56,674 --> 00:11:58,274
children should be fitted with hearing

281
00:11:58,274 --> 00:12:01,234
aids from as early as feasible.

282
00:12:02,194 --> 00:12:04,634
I believe the object in the middle here

283
00:12:04,754 --> 00:12:07,154
is my first-ever hearing aid.

284
00:12:08,034 --> 00:12:10,794
Online tells me that it dates back to

285
00:12:10,794 --> 00:12:13,794
1960, which is consistent - you

286
00:12:13,794 --> 00:12:16,434
see I'm quite old. It's a

287
00:12:16,434 --> 00:12:18,834
lovely retro object, in

288
00:12:18,834 --> 00:12:21,834
chrome. It was

289
00:12:22,034 --> 00:12:24,754
cutting-edge technology at the time,

290
00:12:24,994 --> 00:12:27,834
with transistors, which were relatively

291
00:12:27,834 --> 00:12:30,514
new at that date. There's a

292
00:12:30,514 --> 00:12:32,274
wire which went and plugged into your

293
00:12:32,274 --> 00:12:34,274
ear. Not unlike the devices you see today

294
00:12:34,274 --> 00:12:37,034
actually. My reaction at the time was

295
00:12:37,034 --> 00:12:38,594
to go and bury it in the garden.

296
00:12:41,314 --> 00:12:43,554
And, you know, a world

297
00:12:44,954 --> 00:12:47,914
of noises and sounds, when you are

298
00:12:47,954 --> 00:12:50,754
not used to them, is probably

299
00:12:50,754 --> 00:12:53,634
quite a difficult thing for a two-year-old

300
00:12:54,434 --> 00:12:57,394
to get hold of. But anyway, thank you to

301
00:12:57,394 --> 00:13:00,274
Philips Eindhoven for making that.

302
00:13:00,834 --> 00:13:02,474
And above all, I want to dedicate

303
00:13:02,474 --> 00:13:04,514
this lecture to my parents, because

304
00:13:04,994 --> 00:13:07,314
without their love and support

305
00:13:08,674 --> 00:13:11,594
at that very early stage in my life and

306
00:13:11,594 --> 00:13:13,634
indeed throughout it, of course, but at

307
00:13:13,634 --> 00:13:14,914
that very early stage,

308
00:13:17,754 --> 00:13:19,634
things would have been very different. I

309
00:13:19,954 --> 00:13:22,114
hope they would be proud to see me here

310
00:13:22,354 --> 00:13:25,234
today, because I certainly am proud to be

311
00:13:25,234 --> 00:13:27,794
speaking. Right, that is enough of the

312
00:13:27,794 --> 00:13:29,954
touchy-feely stuff, let's get on and do

313
00:13:29,954 --> 00:13:31,154
some science.

314
00:13:32,674 --> 00:13:34,914
Because I am sort of

315
00:13:34,914 --> 00:13:37,714
existential mathematical

316
00:13:37,714 --> 00:13:39,314
scientist, applied mathematical

317
00:13:39,314 --> 00:13:41,994
scientist. And it's

318
00:13:41,994 --> 00:13:44,514
everywhere. As Irene mentioned, I

319
00:13:45,074 --> 00:13:47,234
have been making these little videos. My

320
00:13:47,234 --> 00:13:49,954
latest one is about how to sum the

321
00:13:49,954 --> 00:13:52,794
geometric theories using your compost heap.

322
00:13:53,714 --> 00:13:55,874
And you can go and see it on the Maths

323
00:13:55,874 --> 00:13:58,674
Instagram or YouTube or TikTok or

324
00:13:59,274 --> 00:14:02,034
wherever. It went up yesterday.

325
00:14:02,994 --> 00:14:05,994
This is a diagram of the human ear, the

326
00:14:05,994 --> 00:14:08,594
inside of the human ear. And

327
00:14:09,074 --> 00:14:11,634
here is the same diagram

328
00:14:12,834 --> 00:14:14,594
but with the colours inverted, because I

329
00:14:14,594 --> 00:14:17,034
find it much easier to work with inverted

330
00:14:17,034 --> 00:14:19,714
colours. I was hoping - I'm sorry about

331
00:14:19,714 --> 00:14:21,154
this - I was hoping that there would not

332
00:14:21,154 --> 00:14:24,114
be these lights in the front, which

333
00:14:24,194 --> 00:14:25,954
might make it a little difficult to see

334
00:14:25,954 --> 00:14:28,114
that diagram. Why don't I come over here

335
00:14:29,314 --> 00:14:32,074
where I will not be in the way of that

336
00:14:32,514 --> 00:14:34,834
screen. And

337
00:14:35,874 --> 00:14:38,754
now, our ears are miraculous pieces

338
00:14:38,874 --> 00:14:41,314
of biology, of

339
00:14:41,354 --> 00:14:43,874
evolution, and of

340
00:14:43,874 --> 00:14:46,114
function. So just to take you through

341
00:14:46,114 --> 00:14:48,994
this very quickly: This is basic biology.

342
00:14:49,794 --> 00:14:52,554
We all have ears. On the

343
00:14:53,954 --> 00:14:56,594
right is the outer ear, the bit

344
00:14:58,834 --> 00:15:01,634
that you always see. And that has its own

345
00:15:01,634 --> 00:15:04,434
function in helping to guide sound waves

346
00:15:04,674 --> 00:15:07,474
into the channel that leads inside your

347
00:15:07,474 --> 00:15:08,714
head, the one that you are not supposed to

348
00:15:08,714 --> 00:15:10,434
put your fingers into, or anything

349
00:15:10,754 --> 00:15:13,154
smaller than your elbow.

350
00:15:14,034 --> 00:15:16,994
The sound then reaches the eardrum or

351
00:15:16,994 --> 00:15:18,754
the tympanum, which is a

352
00:15:19,394 --> 00:15:21,634
membrane in the middle of the ear,

353
00:15:22,434 --> 00:15:24,354
and the sound waves make that vibrate.

354
00:15:24,754 --> 00:15:27,234
Behind that, going further into the ear

355
00:15:27,234 --> 00:15:29,874
still, so go further to the left on the

356
00:15:29,874 --> 00:15:32,874
picture, you have three minute little bones

357
00:15:32,874 --> 00:15:35,714
which form a really ingenious

358
00:15:35,714 --> 00:15:38,714
linkage that takes the vibration

359
00:15:38,714 --> 00:15:41,314
of the eardrum and focuses it down to a

360
00:15:41,314 --> 00:15:44,154
much smaller vibration at the

361
00:15:44,434 --> 00:15:46,754
beginning of what's called the cochlea.

362
00:15:47,434 --> 00:15:49,794
And the cochlea is that little spiral

363
00:15:49,794 --> 00:15:52,114
structure, which you might just be able to

364
00:15:52,114 --> 00:15:54,434
see on the left-hand side of the

365
00:15:54,434 --> 00:15:56,674
picture, two-thirds of the way up. A

366
00:15:56,674 --> 00:15:59,674
spiral which contains

367
00:15:59,714 --> 00:16:01,394
all the sort of business end of it.

368
00:16:01,714 --> 00:16:03,874
That is where the nerve cells are, that

369
00:16:03,874 --> 00:16:06,474
detect the sound that is coming

370
00:16:06,514 --> 00:16:09,314
in and has been amplified by, or

371
00:16:09,314 --> 00:16:11,954
focussed by the three little bones.

372
00:16:12,314 --> 00:16:13,674
And finally above that is the

373
00:16:15,354 --> 00:16:17,474
set of three semicircular canals which

374
00:16:17,954 --> 00:16:20,834
help with our sense of balance and motion,

375
00:16:21,274 --> 00:16:23,954
and work with our eyes to help us know

376
00:16:24,154 --> 00:16:24,754
where we are.

377
00:16:27,154 --> 00:16:29,714
So this is an exquisitely

378
00:16:30,194 --> 00:16:33,074
sensitive mechanism. It

379
00:16:34,034 --> 00:16:36,594
can detect frequencies that run

380
00:16:36,594 --> 00:16:40,194
from,

381
00:16:40,194 --> 00:16:42,434
the rumble of the

382
00:16:42,474 --> 00:16:44,434
earthquake, up to the squeak of a bat,

383
00:16:45,074 --> 00:16:47,314
over the range of 10,000 Hertz or so,

384
00:16:47,314 --> 00:16:50,114
10,000 cycles a second. It

385
00:16:50,194 --> 00:16:53,394
can

386
00:16:53,394 --> 00:16:55,874
detect pressure waves in the atmosphere,

387
00:16:55,874 --> 00:16:58,594
the sound that's going from me to you.

388
00:16:58,594 --> 00:17:00,914
It's making the molecules in the atmosphere

389
00:17:01,074 --> 00:17:04,034
vibrate by a few nanometres.

390
00:17:04,034 --> 00:17:06,714
Now a nanometre, what's a nanometre? It's

391
00:17:06,714 --> 00:17:09,314
a short distance, right? If you take a

392
00:17:09,314 --> 00:17:12,114
paperclip and imagine

393
00:17:13,074 --> 00:17:14,794
taking the shaft of the paperclip, that's

394
00:17:14,794 --> 00:17:17,034
about a millimetre thick, divide that by

395
00:17:17,034 --> 00:17:19,954
1 million, that's a nanometre.

396
00:17:20,474 --> 00:17:22,434
And the vibrations, the sound vibrations in

397
00:17:22,434 --> 00:17:24,674
the air are a few nanometres. So it

398
00:17:24,674 --> 00:17:26,914
really is detecting something that is

399
00:17:26,914 --> 00:17:29,314
almost vanishingly small.

400
00:17:30,634 --> 00:17:33,594
So, that is the

401
00:17:34,434 --> 00:17:36,354
inside of the ear.

402
00:17:37,874 --> 00:17:40,834
Now, there

403
00:17:40,834 --> 00:17:42,274
I've shown you the two pictures side-by-side

404
00:17:42,274 --> 00:17:44,674
and sort of repeated what I've just

405
00:17:44,754 --> 00:17:47,394
said. But I think the key point about

406
00:17:47,394 --> 00:17:49,794
this mechanism is

407
00:17:50,034 --> 00:17:52,434
that-- oops, sorry. The key point about

408
00:17:52,434 --> 00:17:54,674
this mechanism is that it's

409
00:17:57,234 --> 00:17:59,634
the word I'm looking for. Its output, if

410
00:17:59,634 --> 00:18:02,354
you like, varies incredibly widely

411
00:18:02,554 --> 00:18:04,994
between people. So

412
00:18:06,394 --> 00:18:08,834
It's quite a familiar sensation, I guess,

413
00:18:08,834 --> 00:18:11,554
that if your ears are full of water, then

414
00:18:11,554 --> 00:18:13,754
you don't hear so well. Or if you're all

415
00:18:13,794 --> 00:18:16,674
blocked up from a cold or something,

416
00:18:16,674 --> 00:18:18,114
then you don't hear so well.

417
00:18:20,994 --> 00:18:23,474
There are other

418
00:18:23,714 --> 00:18:25,954
ways in which the ear can vary so that

419
00:18:25,954 --> 00:18:28,674
you, again, you simply don't hear so well

420
00:18:29,074 --> 00:18:31,714
due to the outer and the middle ear. And

421
00:18:31,714 --> 00:18:33,794
then, of course, there is what can happen

422
00:18:33,794 --> 00:18:36,594
inside the cochlea,where the nerve cells

423
00:18:36,594 --> 00:18:38,594
are. And

424
00:18:39,474 --> 00:18:42,434
again, that can affect your ability

425
00:18:42,434 --> 00:18:44,994
to hear different frequencies in good

426
00:18:44,994 --> 00:18:46,914
ways as well as bad, because there are

427
00:18:46,914 --> 00:18:49,234
people who have absolutely fantastic,

428
00:18:50,434 --> 00:18:52,394
fantastically sensitive hearing and there

429
00:18:52,394 --> 00:18:54,314
are people who don't. And the range is

430
00:18:54,314 --> 00:18:57,194
enormous. I should say,

431
00:18:57,194 --> 00:18:59,754
incidentally, that the cochlea is a

432
00:19:00,114 --> 00:19:02,194
practical solution to a very interesting

433
00:19:02,194 --> 00:19:05,114
mathematical problem. The sound comes

434
00:19:05,114 --> 00:19:06,954
into your ear and makes the

435
00:19:08,154 --> 00:19:11,154
little, it's called the oval window at

436
00:19:11,154 --> 00:19:13,474
the end of it, makes it vibrate. And then

437
00:19:13,474 --> 00:19:15,634
the sound travels on up the cochlea.

438
00:19:16,114 --> 00:19:18,794
There's a set of nerves that sit along on

439
00:19:18,794 --> 00:19:21,114
a membrane that's sort of wrapped around

440
00:19:21,114 --> 00:19:24,034
like that. The short frequency,

441
00:19:24,034 --> 00:19:26,194
short wavelength, the high frequencies

442
00:19:27,194 --> 00:19:29,514
are all sensed at the beginning and the

443
00:19:30,914 --> 00:19:33,194
low frequencies are sensed at the far end

444
00:19:33,194 --> 00:19:35,514
of the cochlea. And this is because of a

445
00:19:36,274 --> 00:19:39,114
very clever kind of resonance between

446
00:19:39,554 --> 00:19:42,434
the membrane and the fluid, that each

447
00:19:42,434 --> 00:19:44,114
frequency finds its own little echo

448
00:19:44,194 --> 00:19:47,154
chamber, and it goes along and then sort

449
00:19:47,154 --> 00:19:49,074
of grinds to a halt and stimulates the

450
00:19:49,074 --> 00:19:51,194
nerve cell at exactly the right place so

451
00:19:51,234 --> 00:19:52,914
that you can distinguish between these

452
00:19:52,914 --> 00:19:55,594
frequencies. It's a really a very

453
00:19:55,594 --> 00:19:58,474
ingenious mechanism for sorting out

454
00:19:58,474 --> 00:20:01,434
frequencies. So that's our ears. And as

455
00:20:01,514 --> 00:20:03,794
I say, their performance does vary

456
00:20:03,794 --> 00:20:04,914
extremely widely.

457
00:20:06,354 --> 00:20:08,914
Equally astonishing is what our

458
00:20:08,914 --> 00:20:11,794
eyes can do. Here

459
00:20:11,794 --> 00:20:14,034
is a cross-section through

460
00:20:14,954 --> 00:20:17,474
an eye, a human eye. And we

461
00:20:19,074 --> 00:20:20,834
are all familiar, I think, probably with

462
00:20:21,314 --> 00:20:24,274
the sort of general way it works. Going

463
00:20:24,274 --> 00:20:26,554
from left to right, you have the cornea,

464
00:20:26,554 --> 00:20:28,674
which is the translucent bit at the

465
00:20:28,674 --> 00:20:31,474
front. giving,

466
00:20:33,074 --> 00:20:35,554
covering up a little gap which is full of

467
00:20:35,714 --> 00:20:38,474
a fairly runny liquid called the

468
00:20:38,634 --> 00:20:41,234
aqueous humor. Humor is a very

469
00:20:41,234 --> 00:20:43,874
ancient word for liquid or for

470
00:20:44,274 --> 00:20:47,114
substance. Then you have lens, which

471
00:20:47,714 --> 00:20:50,554
is the focusing object

472
00:20:50,914 --> 00:20:53,074
controlled by sets of muscles and with an

473
00:20:53,074 --> 00:20:55,674
aperture like a camera, which is the

474
00:20:55,794 --> 00:20:58,594
iris and making the gap in the middle is

475
00:20:58,594 --> 00:21:00,914
your pupil. The light goes through the

476
00:21:00,914 --> 00:21:03,834
lens to the back of the eye, where it's

477
00:21:03,834 --> 00:21:06,034
focused on the retina, which is a

478
00:21:06,274 --> 00:21:08,674
membrane, the line of

479
00:21:08,914 --> 00:21:11,074
light-sensitive cells on a membrane that

480
00:21:11,394 --> 00:21:14,354
sit on the back of the eye, and then

481
00:21:14,354 --> 00:21:16,474
it goes down the optic nerve into the...

482
00:21:16,874 --> 00:21:19,634
into the brain. So

483
00:21:20,754 --> 00:21:23,234
again, there's a wide

484
00:21:23,234 --> 00:21:25,034
variety of things that can happen with

485
00:21:25,034 --> 00:21:26,274
this that

486
00:21:28,034 --> 00:21:30,754
can happen very slightly and will happen

487
00:21:30,754 --> 00:21:33,314
to pretty much everybody in this room

488
00:21:33,394 --> 00:21:35,954
over their lifetime, because

489
00:21:35,954 --> 00:21:37,794
eyesight certainly does change, as does

490
00:21:37,794 --> 00:21:39,394
hearing, but eyesight certainly does

491
00:21:39,394 --> 00:21:41,754
change. For example, the

492
00:21:41,754 --> 00:21:44,754
cornea at the front of the eye may

493
00:21:44,754 --> 00:21:47,474
not be a translucentas it could

494
00:21:47,474 --> 00:21:50,274
be. The lens can become opaque as

495
00:21:50,274 --> 00:21:53,274
you grow older and the condition

496
00:21:53,274 --> 00:21:55,634
known as cataracts where it becomes sort

497
00:21:55,634 --> 00:21:58,514
of milky and doesn't let the light

498
00:21:58,514 --> 00:22:00,514
through and then you have terrible

499
00:22:00,514 --> 00:22:03,474
problems with glare. That light coming

500
00:22:03,474 --> 00:22:05,914
from over here gets refracted by the

501
00:22:06,194 --> 00:22:08,674
particles in the lens and ends up

502
00:22:08,674 --> 00:22:09,954
somewhere where it shouldn't be.

503
00:22:11,634 --> 00:22:14,354
The lens becomes stiff as it gets older,

504
00:22:14,354 --> 00:22:16,674
so it won't move, won't adapt

505
00:22:17,714 --> 00:22:20,554
to focus the

506
00:22:21,234 --> 00:22:24,194
light from different places, as it should

507
00:22:25,434 --> 00:22:27,794
do. You can get floated and things in

508
00:22:27,794 --> 00:22:30,554
your various, in the two layers of

509
00:22:30,594 --> 00:22:32,994
fluid. And the retina has

510
00:22:33,234 --> 00:22:34,834
many things that can happen in the

511
00:22:34,834 --> 00:22:37,714
retina, that's before you even get to

512
00:22:37,714 --> 00:22:40,674
the optic nerve. So once again, there

513
00:22:40,674 --> 00:22:42,994
is a very wide variety of

514
00:22:46,914 --> 00:22:49,314
performance, if you like, or outcomes

515
00:22:49,314 --> 00:22:50,514
from the eye.

516
00:22:53,154 --> 00:22:55,634
Now, this is the disability

517
00:22:55,634 --> 00:22:57,074
lecture, and

518
00:23:01,354 --> 00:23:03,074
both the eye and the ear

519
00:23:04,194 --> 00:23:06,994
are sort of

520
00:23:06,994 --> 00:23:09,394
key focuses of

521
00:23:10,034 --> 00:23:11,754
certain kinds of things we label as

522
00:23:11,754 --> 00:23:14,034
disability. But the real point I want to

523
00:23:14,034 --> 00:23:15,714
make here is that these

524
00:23:16,114 --> 00:23:19,074
disabilities are really just part of

525
00:23:19,514 --> 00:23:21,714
a much wider variation. And I'm going to

526
00:23:21,714 --> 00:23:23,794
come back to this throughout the lecture,

527
00:23:23,794 --> 00:23:26,594
that there's such a wide variation both

528
00:23:26,754 --> 00:23:29,634
between people and in individuals as they

529
00:23:29,634 --> 00:23:32,234
go through life, or if they get a cold

530
00:23:32,234 --> 00:23:34,194
and can't hear, or if they get an eye

531
00:23:34,194 --> 00:23:36,194
infection and they can't see so well, or

532
00:23:36,434 --> 00:23:38,794
whatever it might be. There's

533
00:23:39,794 --> 00:23:42,714
a much greater variety than there's

534
00:23:42,714 --> 00:23:45,514
this lot of people over here who aren't

535
00:23:45,514 --> 00:23:47,554
disabled and there's this lot over here

536
00:23:48,674 --> 00:23:50,274
who are. So

537
00:23:51,954 --> 00:23:54,594
my approach to this whole question

538
00:23:54,914 --> 00:23:57,554
is very much dictated by that thought

539
00:23:57,634 --> 00:24:00,594
that we are talking about pretty much

540
00:24:00,674 --> 00:24:03,554
everybody. There will be the odd person

541
00:24:03,554 --> 00:24:05,474
with perfect eyesight and perfect hearing

542
00:24:05,474 --> 00:24:06,514
and all the rest of it, but we are

543
00:24:06,514 --> 00:24:08,474
talking about pretty much everybody in

544
00:24:08,474 --> 00:24:10,554
what I'm going to talk about for the rest

545
00:24:10,554 --> 00:24:13,434
of this lecture. Before we do that,

546
00:24:13,434 --> 00:24:16,114
though, I do want to take one digestion

547
00:24:16,114 --> 00:24:18,834
because I am a mathematician, and I did

548
00:24:18,834 --> 00:24:20,674
want to work on the mathematical theory

549
00:24:20,714 --> 00:24:23,234
of colour. Now, the

550
00:24:23,234 --> 00:24:25,114
mathematical theory of colour is very

551
00:24:25,114 --> 00:24:27,994
interesting. It goes back to the 19th

552
00:24:27,994 --> 00:24:30,194
century, Maxwell, the great Maxwell was

553
00:24:30,194 --> 00:24:31,634
involved, and Helmholtz,

554
00:24:32,754 --> 00:24:35,314
And it works something like this.

555
00:24:37,314 --> 00:24:40,114
We all know light that comes from

556
00:24:41,354 --> 00:24:43,634
a light source, the sun, these lights,

557
00:24:43,634 --> 00:24:46,034
wherever, consists of

558
00:24:46,194 --> 00:24:48,914
photons of light which come into the eye

559
00:24:48,914 --> 00:24:50,914
and they come into the eye in enormous

560
00:24:50,914 --> 00:24:53,634
numbers. They come in at the rate of,

561
00:24:54,514 --> 00:24:55,994
I said on the previous slide, I think it

562
00:24:55,994 --> 00:24:58,834
was 10 trillion photons a second

563
00:24:58,834 --> 00:25:01,714
in ordinary daylight coming to your eye.

564
00:25:02,114 --> 00:25:04,914
even though the eye can respond to as few

565
00:25:04,914 --> 00:25:07,634
as half a dozen at once. It's,

566
00:25:07,634 --> 00:25:10,274
again, a mechanism of quite extraordinary

567
00:25:10,274 --> 00:25:12,714
sensitivity. But

568
00:25:14,114 --> 00:25:16,914
you have this notion that we all learn at

569
00:25:16,914 --> 00:25:19,394
school that light has wavelength and the

570
00:25:19,394 --> 00:25:20,914
wavelength tells you the color of the

571
00:25:20,914 --> 00:25:23,794
light. But our eyes and our brain

572
00:25:23,794 --> 00:25:25,954
between them take that

573
00:25:26,194 --> 00:25:28,594
complicated set of information that

574
00:25:29,234 --> 00:25:31,754
The amount of light at this frequency is

575
00:25:31,754 --> 00:25:33,234
that, and the amount of light at this

576
00:25:33,234 --> 00:25:35,634
frequency is that, and so on. And it

577
00:25:35,634 --> 00:25:38,354
synthesizes all of that and it turned it

578
00:25:38,354 --> 00:25:40,994
into three numbers, just three numbers.

579
00:25:41,874 --> 00:25:44,434
The picture on the left here is what's

580
00:25:44,434 --> 00:25:46,674
known as the CIE chromaticity

581
00:25:46,674 --> 00:25:49,474
diagram. CIE is something in

582
00:25:49,474 --> 00:25:52,434
French, I think, to do with

583
00:25:53,314 --> 00:25:56,194
couleur, I'll bet you, for the

584
00:25:56,194 --> 00:25:59,114
C, but I don't know the I and the E. And

585
00:25:59,114 --> 00:26:01,394
what this is is a representation of all

586
00:26:01,394 --> 00:26:04,314
the colors that we can see. Round

587
00:26:04,314 --> 00:26:06,754
the curved bit, the curved

588
00:26:06,834 --> 00:26:09,634
boundary of that shape, you have the pure

589
00:26:09,634 --> 00:26:12,074
colors, the monochromatic light, light of

590
00:26:12,074 --> 00:26:14,994
a single frequency going from red at the

591
00:26:14,994 --> 00:26:17,914
bottom left-hand corner to blue at the

592
00:26:17,914 --> 00:26:19,554
bottom right-hand corner through

593
00:26:21,194 --> 00:26:23,074
what Richard de Viore gave battle in

594
00:26:23,074 --> 00:26:25,914
vain, red, orange, yellow, green, blue,

595
00:26:25,914 --> 00:26:26,914
indigo, violet.

596
00:26:29,474 --> 00:26:32,394
So those are the monochromatic lights and

597
00:26:32,394 --> 00:26:34,034
then you have a straight line across the

598
00:26:34,034 --> 00:26:36,794
bottom which is red joining up to

599
00:26:37,834 --> 00:26:40,674
purple to violet. Everything else is a

600
00:26:40,674 --> 00:26:42,114
combination of those

601
00:26:44,274 --> 00:26:46,994
covers and it's what we callin

602
00:26:46,994 --> 00:26:48,994
mathematics. A convex combination, which

603
00:26:48,994 --> 00:26:51,554
means that the shape on the screen is

604
00:26:51,554 --> 00:26:54,194
convex in the sense that if you draw a

605
00:26:54,194 --> 00:26:56,474
little line in it, you stay inside the

606
00:26:56,674 --> 00:26:58,754
colored region. You never go outside it.

607
00:26:59,794 --> 00:27:01,994
It's not shaped like a

608
00:27:04,834 --> 00:27:06,354
figure of eight or anything like that.

609
00:27:06,354 --> 00:27:09,314
It's a nice convex shape. And it has

610
00:27:09,314 --> 00:27:11,114
three dimensions. The third one is the

611
00:27:11,154 --> 00:27:13,634
dimension that goes. as it were, into the

612
00:27:13,634 --> 00:27:16,194
screen. And that measures the brightness,

613
00:27:16,194 --> 00:27:17,914
the amplitude. But the

614
00:27:20,754 --> 00:27:23,474
key is in this picture. On the

615
00:27:23,474 --> 00:27:26,354
right is how a television

616
00:27:26,354 --> 00:27:29,074
screen works, or an LCD screen. You have

617
00:27:29,074 --> 00:27:31,434
three different phosphorus, red, blue,

618
00:27:31,434 --> 00:27:34,354
and green, or liquid crystals or

619
00:27:34,354 --> 00:27:37,074
LEDs these days. And what they do is

620
00:27:37,074 --> 00:27:39,554
they shine at their different

621
00:27:40,354 --> 00:27:43,274
powers. And they meld together,

622
00:27:43,274 --> 00:27:45,074
if you look at them from far enough away,

623
00:27:45,074 --> 00:27:46,674
if you look at them really close up with

624
00:27:46,754 --> 00:27:49,234
a magnifying glass or the

625
00:27:49,234 --> 00:27:51,394
magnifier on your phone or something, you

626
00:27:51,394 --> 00:27:54,114
can see the individual pixels all red,

627
00:27:54,234 --> 00:27:56,154
blue, and green. But when you look at

628
00:27:56,154 --> 00:27:58,394
them from far enough away, they mix

629
00:27:58,394 --> 00:28:00,394
together to make colours just like the

630
00:28:00,594 --> 00:28:03,394
left-hand side. And you see

631
00:28:03,394 --> 00:28:05,914
what you can see on a television. or a

632
00:28:06,034 --> 00:28:08,154
phone or something, it's only the inside

633
00:28:08,154 --> 00:28:09,954
of that triangle because you can only get

634
00:28:09,954 --> 00:28:12,594
positive amounts of red, blue and green.

635
00:28:12,594 --> 00:28:15,394
So you have a much

636
00:28:15,394 --> 00:28:17,794
smaller set of colours. And so getting

637
00:28:17,794 --> 00:28:19,474
outside and getting into the daylight

638
00:28:19,474 --> 00:28:21,474
really is a very good thing to do.

639
00:28:23,314 --> 00:28:26,274
Now, let's get down to

640
00:28:26,274 --> 00:28:26,754
business.

641
00:28:30,314 --> 00:28:33,274
My theme is essentially just a

642
00:28:33,274 --> 00:28:35,994
variation on what Irene said in her

643
00:28:36,274 --> 00:28:38,754
introduction. And my theme is

644
00:28:39,554 --> 00:28:41,554
just one extension to what she said. It

645
00:28:41,554 --> 00:28:44,354
is that if we really work

646
00:28:44,434 --> 00:28:47,074
to design our

647
00:28:47,074 --> 00:28:49,474
buildings and everything to do with them,

648
00:28:49,474 --> 00:28:52,034
to design them in a properly accessible

649
00:28:52,034 --> 00:28:54,754
and inclusive way from the

650
00:28:54,754 --> 00:28:56,594
bottom up and from the very beginning,

651
00:28:57,154 --> 00:28:59,874
thenfar more people will benefit

652
00:29:00,034 --> 00:29:01,474
than those who are

653
00:29:04,114 --> 00:29:07,074
in whatever category we might say is

654
00:29:07,234 --> 00:29:09,394
disabled. Because as I say, in my view,

655
00:29:09,394 --> 00:29:12,194
the spectrum, these ranges are

656
00:29:12,194 --> 00:29:14,514
incredibly blurred. And

657
00:29:17,074 --> 00:29:18,834
it's not a pointless exercise. It's

658
00:29:18,834 --> 00:29:21,794
necessary for legal reasons, if nothing

659
00:29:21,794 --> 00:29:24,034
else. And it's a tremendous spur to

660
00:29:24,114 --> 00:29:26,834
action. for us to have

661
00:29:27,154 --> 00:29:29,874
this notion of disability in quotes.

662
00:29:30,034 --> 00:29:32,914
But I'm arguing that by

663
00:29:33,474 --> 00:29:35,074
working to make things better that way,

664
00:29:35,074 --> 00:29:37,034
we will make work things better for

665
00:29:37,034 --> 00:29:39,714
everybody. And that is such a powerful

666
00:29:39,714 --> 00:29:42,034
motivation that it should really be

667
00:29:42,914 --> 00:29:45,034
running through everything that we think

668
00:29:45,194 --> 00:29:47,314
and do. So that is

669
00:29:49,234 --> 00:29:52,114
the general philosophy of this.

670
00:29:53,154 --> 00:29:55,314
And the other thing

671
00:29:55,314 --> 00:29:57,714
that I think is absolutely critical

672
00:29:58,114 --> 00:30:00,594
is to say that

673
00:30:01,154 --> 00:30:03,314
we have to do this from the bottom-up and

674
00:30:03,314 --> 00:30:06,194
from as early as possible onwards. And

675
00:30:06,194 --> 00:30:08,154
certainly in my experience, and I'm going

676
00:30:08,154 --> 00:30:09,794
to give you some examples in a minute,

677
00:30:10,154 --> 00:30:12,914
but in my experience, doing

678
00:30:12,914 --> 00:30:15,874
things late in the day or thinking about

679
00:30:15,874 --> 00:30:18,714
things late in the day is simply, it's

680
00:30:18,714 --> 00:30:21,234
hopeless, it never works, you never get

681
00:30:21,234 --> 00:30:23,874
enough. you can never get them done

682
00:30:23,874 --> 00:30:26,514
because there's always so many reasons

683
00:30:26,514 --> 00:30:29,194
not to. So that is the

684
00:30:29,714 --> 00:30:31,074
that is the general theme.

685
00:30:32,434 --> 00:30:35,154
And then

686
00:30:35,394 --> 00:30:38,194
there's another thing to say, which is,

687
00:30:38,874 --> 00:30:40,474
especially for someone like me talking

688
00:30:40,474 --> 00:30:42,594
about this, because I am, you know, I've

689
00:30:42,674 --> 00:30:44,394
done a lot of things in the university

690
00:30:44,394 --> 00:30:46,194
and I've been I've got a lot of

691
00:30:46,194 --> 00:30:48,834
experience. I was fortunate enough to be

692
00:30:48,834 --> 00:30:50,674
head of the mathdepartment when we were

693
00:30:50,674 --> 00:30:53,034
building the Andrew Wiles building but

694
00:30:53,034 --> 00:30:54,994
nonetheless I'm I'm no expert

695
00:30:55,794 --> 00:30:58,114
and the temptation is

696
00:30:59,474 --> 00:31:01,634
very very strong for uh

697
00:31:02,354 --> 00:31:05,354
anybody in that sort of position to

698
00:31:05,794 --> 00:31:08,314
adopt uh this is a

699
00:31:08,634 --> 00:31:11,394
what what do you call an aphorism for

700
00:31:11,394 --> 00:31:14,234
every uh complex problem I

701
00:31:14,754 --> 00:31:15,954
can't quite read that from there.

702
00:31:19,474 --> 00:31:21,394
Well, we can sort of write for every

703
00:31:21,394 --> 00:31:24,274
complex problem. There is a solution that

704
00:31:24,274 --> 00:31:26,354
is clear, simple and wrong.

705
00:31:27,794 --> 00:31:30,594
'Wrong!' 'Clear, simple and wrong' is a

706
00:31:30,594 --> 00:31:32,914
motto that should be sort of engraved in

707
00:31:33,594 --> 00:31:35,554
all planning departments because

708
00:31:37,714 --> 00:31:40,314
this is so true. I don't like aphorisms

709
00:31:40,354 --> 00:31:42,114
actually, because I think they stifle

710
00:31:42,114 --> 00:31:44,594
thought. This is a kind of anti-aphorism

711
00:31:44,594 --> 00:31:46,234
because it says aphorisms are clear,

712
00:31:46,234 --> 00:31:47,434
simple and wrong, doesn't it?

713
00:31:49,154 --> 00:31:51,474
Oh, I can feel a word cloud coming on.

714
00:31:54,674 --> 00:31:56,994
Most unlike me, those of you who know me,

715
00:31:57,714 --> 00:32:00,194
I promise I won't make you write your

716
00:32:00,194 --> 00:32:02,194
thoughts on post-it notes and come up and

717
00:32:03,074 --> 00:32:05,554
put them on a board. This is a word

718
00:32:05,554 --> 00:32:08,554
cloud. It's got a lot

719
00:32:08,554 --> 00:32:10,234
of words in it. Not all of them probably

720
00:32:10,234 --> 00:32:11,714
very easy to read, but the one in the

721
00:32:11,714 --> 00:32:13,634
middle is certainly

722
00:32:14,354 --> 00:32:16,834
absolutely key: 'Complexity'.

723
00:32:17,314 --> 00:32:19,794
There is no escaping complexity. There is

724
00:32:19,794 --> 00:32:22,674
no escaping complexity in everything

725
00:32:22,674 --> 00:32:25,594
we do, to do with design and

726
00:32:25,594 --> 00:32:28,514
making it accessible and inclusive. There

727
00:32:28,514 --> 00:32:30,434
are other words in there, 'wellbeing' I

728
00:32:30,434 --> 00:32:32,994
think is a really important one, one we

729
00:32:32,994 --> 00:32:35,314
don't talk about wellbeing in our design

730
00:32:35,314 --> 00:32:38,034
enough. 'Cost'

731
00:32:38,274 --> 00:32:40,994
is clearly, you know, is

732
00:32:42,434 --> 00:32:44,674
crucial. 'Compromise',

733
00:32:45,234 --> 00:32:47,394
care,responsibility,

734
00:32:48,394 --> 00:32:50,914
and several other words as well. But

735
00:32:52,514 --> 00:32:55,234
'complexity' is

736
00:32:55,474 --> 00:32:55,954
the one.

737
00:32:59,074 --> 00:33:01,714
So let's go back a year. A year from now,

738
00:33:01,794 --> 00:33:04,354
I was asked to come

739
00:33:04,994 --> 00:33:06,434
and give the vote of thanks for this

740
00:33:06,434 --> 00:33:09,194
lecture, an invitation I accepted very

741
00:33:09,194 --> 00:33:12,114
gladly. and I

742
00:33:12,114 --> 00:33:13,714
didn't realise it was the audition, at first.

743
00:33:16,754 --> 00:33:19,714
Anyway, I walked over from

744
00:33:19,714 --> 00:33:21,714
the Maths Building and I came towards the

745
00:33:21,714 --> 00:33:24,034
Blavatnik. And

746
00:33:25,154 --> 00:33:27,234
so what you are looking at there is the view

747
00:33:27,234 --> 00:33:30,114
from outside Somerville's new

748
00:33:30,114 --> 00:33:33,074
buildings towards OUP. And I

749
00:33:33,074 --> 00:33:35,474
saw those two silver

750
00:33:36,914 --> 00:33:39,834
anti-parking bollards in the

751
00:33:39,834 --> 00:33:42,674
pavement and I thought - oh, good, I 've

752
00:33:42,674 --> 00:33:44,194
spotted them and I'm not going to run

753
00:33:44,194 --> 00:33:46,034
into them, I will go right through the

754
00:33:46,034 --> 00:33:47,714
middle of the gap, and then I'll be safe.

755
00:33:47,714 --> 00:33:50,674
Well, right in the

756
00:33:50,674 --> 00:33:53,634
middle of the gap was that bollard there.

757
00:33:55,394 --> 00:33:56,674
'Bollards!', I said.

758
00:33:58,754 --> 00:34:00,074
Well I didn't quite say that.

759
00:34:01,954 --> 00:34:04,274
It is, by the way, still there. I checked

760
00:34:04,274 --> 00:34:07,154
on my way over today. So I said,

761
00:34:07,154 --> 00:34:08,914
yes, 'Bollards,' 'bollards, bollards!'.

762
00:34:11,074 --> 00:34:13,074
That was kind of, you know, it got me

763
00:34:13,074 --> 00:34:15,474
going a little bit. So,

764
00:34:17,394 --> 00:34:20,234
let's take a journey to

765
00:34:20,234 --> 00:34:22,994
work, opening up a

766
00:34:22,994 --> 00:34:24,754
world of obstacles.

767
00:34:26,394 --> 00:34:29,034
So here are some pictures of the sorts of

768
00:34:29,074 --> 00:34:31,794
things that one will

769
00:34:31,794 --> 00:34:34,594
encounter on a typical journey to work.

770
00:34:35,474 --> 00:34:38,434
We have sandwich boards,

771
00:34:38,434 --> 00:34:40,754
designed to push you off

772
00:34:41,314 --> 00:34:44,034
into the traffic. We have,

773
00:34:45,114 --> 00:34:46,914
what else have I got here?We've got

774
00:34:47,874 --> 00:34:50,354
signage. We've got people putting, you

775
00:34:50,354 --> 00:34:52,234
know, the things that tell you about the

776
00:34:52,434 --> 00:34:55,074
floor is wet and slippery. And then they

777
00:34:55,074 --> 00:34:56,594
go and put them at the top of a set of

778
00:34:56,594 --> 00:34:59,594
stairs so that what do you do?You

779
00:34:59,594 --> 00:35:01,474
slip over or do you trip over?It's

780
00:35:02,354 --> 00:35:05,154
anyway, things like that. And

781
00:35:06,274 --> 00:35:08,274
And what is the other one? What does it say?

782
00:35:08,274 --> 00:35:11,154
I cannot remember my own

783
00:35:11,154 --> 00:35:13,794
slides now! Oh, yes,

784
00:35:14,034 --> 00:35:15,354
yes. Well, that kind of speaks for

785
00:35:15,354 --> 00:35:18,354
itself, doesn't it? And then, you

786
00:35:18,354 --> 00:35:20,914
know, once you get going on this, oh,

787
00:35:20,914 --> 00:35:23,634
yes, yes. What have we got now? We've got

788
00:35:23,874 --> 00:35:26,834
bicycles. Yes, bicycles.

789
00:35:28,274 --> 00:35:29,914
And wheelie bins. I mean, wheelie bins

790
00:35:29,914 --> 00:35:32,914
all over the pavement. And other

791
00:35:32,914 --> 00:35:35,634
people, especially the great long

792
00:35:35,634 --> 00:35:37,594
crocodiles of tourists who don't see you

793
00:35:37,594 --> 00:35:40,554
coming. And I mean, you

794
00:35:40,554 --> 00:35:42,074
can get yourself quite worked up about

795
00:35:42,074 --> 00:35:43,594
this and start writing letters to the

796
00:35:43,594 --> 00:35:45,474
paper in green ink. So

797
00:35:46,514 --> 00:35:48,114
you've got, you've got yourself to work.

798
00:35:48,114 --> 00:35:49,794
You're sort of happy. Well, no, you

799
00:35:49,794 --> 00:35:51,314
haven't quite got yourself to work. This

800
00:35:51,314 --> 00:35:53,154
is quite an interesting slide, this one.

801
00:35:53,954 --> 00:35:56,754
This is two pillars.

802
00:35:57,234 --> 00:35:59,794
The one on the left is a little station

803
00:35:59,794 --> 00:36:02,114
down in Somerset called Crewkerne,

804
00:36:02,914 --> 00:36:05,794
and in the picture you see

805
00:36:06,754 --> 00:36:08,834
the station platform, and you see the

806
00:36:09,314 --> 00:36:11,074
thing, the awning to keep the rain off

807
00:36:11,074 --> 00:36:13,714
you while you're waiting for your train,

808
00:36:13,714 --> 00:36:16,194
and waiting and waiting. And then you see

809
00:36:16,194 --> 00:36:18,754
that's held up by a set of pillars, just

810
00:36:18,754 --> 00:36:21,714
iron girders painted white. And

811
00:36:21,714 --> 00:36:23,474
they have painted black stripes across

812
00:36:23,474 --> 00:36:26,434
them at eye level through various heights

813
00:36:26,434 --> 00:36:29,274
for people. That is a game-changer for a

814
00:36:29,274 --> 00:36:30,994
lot of people. It's

815
00:36:31,994 --> 00:36:33,954
enables you to see something that you

816
00:36:33,954 --> 00:36:36,834
might well not have clocked when you're

817
00:36:36,914 --> 00:36:38,834
getting out of a train, you know, you've

818
00:36:38,834 --> 00:36:40,434
been out of the train and you come out into

819
00:36:40,434 --> 00:36:42,914
dazzling sunlight or something like that,

820
00:36:44,114 --> 00:36:46,514
and you might well not clock that there

821
00:36:46,514 --> 00:36:49,034
is a pillar there. That is

822
00:36:49,754 --> 00:36:52,394
something that is ugly to

823
00:36:52,434 --> 00:36:54,994
do in retrospect but

824
00:36:55,314 --> 00:36:57,074
could we not think about - I mean, just

825
00:36:57,074 --> 00:36:59,154
imagine putting white stripes round the

826
00:36:59,154 --> 00:37:01,794
pillars of the Clarendon Building, let's say.

827
00:37:01,834 --> 00:37:04,754
It's not to be considered. But if

828
00:37:04,754 --> 00:37:07,074
you think about this early enough in your

829
00:37:07,074 --> 00:37:09,874
design, well, we know Departments have logos;

830
00:37:09,874 --> 00:37:12,554
have logos; Colleges have coats of arms

831
00:37:12,594 --> 00:37:14,394
that could easily be put around quite a

832
00:37:14,394 --> 00:37:17,154
lot of these things and make them just...

833
00:37:18,594 --> 00:37:21,234
Just that little bit of forethought. On the

834
00:37:21,234 --> 00:37:23,514
right, a lamppost. The

835
00:37:23,554 --> 00:37:25,874
lamppost is - I've slightly hammed this

836
00:37:25,874 --> 00:37:28,834
picture up by fiddling with

837
00:37:28,834 --> 00:37:31,794
it - but that is sort of what a lamppost

838
00:37:31,794 --> 00:37:34,514
might look like, if you had incipient

839
00:37:34,514 --> 00:37:37,074
cataracts. And lot of people in this

840
00:37:37,074 --> 00:37:39,874
room will get cataracts. The good news

841
00:37:40,034 --> 00:37:42,994
is that the treatment is

842
00:37:43,314 --> 00:37:46,194
excellent and it's

843
00:37:46,194 --> 00:37:47,834
transformative, actually, the treatment

844
00:37:47,834 --> 00:37:50,754
for cataracts. And so, it's not something

845
00:37:50,754 --> 00:37:52,674
to - although it's not how you would spend an

846
00:37:52,714 --> 00:37:55,394
afternoon by choice, it's

847
00:37:55,394 --> 00:37:58,234
not the

848
00:37:58,354 --> 00:38:01,074
sort of end of things that it once was.

849
00:38:01,074 --> 00:38:03,554
But there you see how a tonally

850
00:38:03,794 --> 00:38:06,674
similar lamppost and pavement can just

851
00:38:06,994 --> 00:38:09,634
blend into each other in glary sunlight.

852
00:38:12,834 --> 00:38:15,554
You approach your building. Now

853
00:38:15,634 --> 00:38:18,154
this is the

854
00:38:19,794 --> 00:38:22,434
approach to the Weston Library on Broad

855
00:38:22,434 --> 00:38:24,194
Street, the steps outside the Weston

856
00:38:24,194 --> 00:38:26,594
Library. I'm afraid I'm going to be

857
00:38:26,594 --> 00:38:27,714
critical about this.

858
00:38:31,314 --> 00:38:34,194
I don't have too many kind thoughts

859
00:38:34,194 --> 00:38:36,434
for the design of this.

860
00:38:36,994 --> 00:38:39,394
What we have is a set of steps running up

861
00:38:39,394 --> 00:38:42,074
to the building, very wide steps, the

862
00:38:42,074 --> 00:38:44,154
width of the building,And then there's a

863
00:38:44,154 --> 00:38:46,754
wheelchair ramp which runs diagonally

864
00:38:46,754 --> 00:38:49,234
across the steps. So the

865
00:38:49,234 --> 00:38:52,194
steps, every step is crossed in a

866
00:38:52,194 --> 00:38:54,314
different place by this wheelchair ramp.

867
00:38:54,994 --> 00:38:56,994
This is an absolute nightmare to

868
00:38:57,794 --> 00:39:00,594
walk down or up if you are

869
00:39:00,994 --> 00:39:03,794
not able to see really how well things,

870
00:39:04,114 --> 00:39:05,794
if you're not able to see how, where

871
00:39:05,794 --> 00:39:08,434
you're going terribly well. It really is

872
00:39:08,754 --> 00:39:11,754
a nightmare. And you imagine coming out

873
00:39:11,754 --> 00:39:14,194
of there on a cold November night,

874
00:39:14,674 --> 00:39:16,154
having been to a wonderful talk in the

875
00:39:16,154 --> 00:39:17,874
Weston Library and your head is full of

876
00:39:17,874 --> 00:39:20,194
medieval manuscripts or something. And

877
00:39:20,194 --> 00:39:21,314
then you've got to make your way down

878
00:39:21,314 --> 00:39:22,754
there. No handrails, of course, because

879
00:39:22,754 --> 00:39:24,274
you can't have handrails across the

880
00:39:24,274 --> 00:39:27,074
wheelchair ramp. You can see where they

881
00:39:27,074 --> 00:39:29,874
were coming from. You can see

882
00:39:30,834 --> 00:39:33,834
the idea was good. Obviously, there had

883
00:39:33,834 --> 00:39:35,674
to be wheelchair access, that goes

884
00:39:35,674 --> 00:39:38,554
without saying. But this compromise, this

885
00:39:38,554 --> 00:39:41,314
particular compromise, was all one

886
00:39:41,314 --> 00:39:43,394
and none of the other. So here is another

887
00:39:43,394 --> 00:39:46,114
thing that's going to come into this as a

888
00:39:46,114 --> 00:39:48,194
theme. There is going to be conflict

889
00:39:48,434 --> 00:39:50,594
between the needs of different people.

890
00:39:50,834 --> 00:39:53,794
And we need to recognise that and

891
00:39:53,874 --> 00:39:56,674
balance it off, not just sort of shove it

892
00:39:56,674 --> 00:39:58,834
away. We need to recognise that and work

893
00:39:58,834 --> 00:40:01,234
out our solutions, and if possible work out

894
00:40:01,234 --> 00:40:03,594
solutions that avoid that conflict

895
00:40:03,874 --> 00:40:04,434
altogether.

896
00:40:06,794 --> 00:40:08,474
Here are some more steps. This is the

897
00:40:08,474 --> 00:40:10,754
approach to Christchurch Hall, my

898
00:40:10,754 --> 00:40:13,074
college, Christchurch. This is Harry

899
00:40:13,074 --> 00:40:14,194
Potter territory.

900
00:40:15,554 --> 00:40:18,554
And, well, it's

901
00:40:18,554 --> 00:40:21,314
a very tall flight of

902
00:40:21,314 --> 00:40:23,314
steps. Again, not much in the way of

903
00:40:23,314 --> 00:40:25,954
handrails. If Henry VIII had

904
00:40:25,954 --> 00:40:28,514
listened to his accessibility advisor,

905
00:40:29,954 --> 00:40:31,754
we would not have had to paint those ugly

906
00:40:31,754 --> 00:40:34,674
white stripes in the middle of the steps

907
00:40:34,674 --> 00:40:37,594
to helpeverybody, and I mean

908
00:40:37,594 --> 00:40:39,714
everybody, see where they're going on

909
00:40:39,714 --> 00:40:42,714
those stairs. But I don't

910
00:40:42,714 --> 00:40:45,154
think Henry VIII was very keen on that

911
00:40:45,154 --> 00:40:45,954
sort of thing somehow.

912
00:40:48,314 --> 00:40:51,234
So you arrive at your building, and

913
00:40:52,274 --> 00:40:54,834
maybe it's locked. Maybe it's, you know,

914
00:40:55,154 --> 00:40:56,794
you've gone, had to go in at the weekend

915
00:40:56,794 --> 00:40:58,674
or something, or maybe it's always locked

916
00:40:58,674 --> 00:41:00,914
with security, and you're faced with a

917
00:41:00,914 --> 00:41:03,154
keypad. Now I had a

918
00:41:03,154 --> 00:41:05,154
tantrum back in

919
00:41:05,394 --> 00:41:08,154
January because I went into

920
00:41:08,594 --> 00:41:09,674
the maths building to

921
00:41:11,794 --> 00:41:13,874
return the lapel mic with which I had

922
00:41:13,874 --> 00:41:15,794
walked off after my lecture the previous

923
00:41:15,794 --> 00:41:17,874
day. So I was doing good, right?

924
00:41:19,074 --> 00:41:21,234
And I get to the door, freezing cold,

925
00:41:21,234 --> 00:41:24,034
pouring with rain. You have to put

926
00:41:24,034 --> 00:41:26,594
your PIN into this number. And oh, by the

927
00:41:26,594 --> 00:41:29,354
way, the PIN is not the first six digits

928
00:41:29,354 --> 00:41:32,114
of pi, were you thinking of that?You have

929
00:41:32,114 --> 00:41:34,194
to put your pin into this thing and you

930
00:41:34,194 --> 00:41:36,194
find that it is essentially completely

931
00:41:36,194 --> 00:41:38,594
black and completely invisible.

932
00:41:39,474 --> 00:41:41,914
The old one, the original one, had an

933
00:41:41,914 --> 00:41:43,074
American style

934
00:41:45,074 --> 00:41:47,874
telephone punch keypad, but this one

935
00:41:48,114 --> 00:41:50,034
sort of smooth and the numbers got worn

936
00:41:50,034 --> 00:41:51,914
off. So I wrote a

937
00:41:53,274 --> 00:41:55,114
really polite e-mail to the

938
00:41:56,274 --> 00:41:59,154
to the Maths facilities team,

939
00:41:59,154 --> 00:42:01,994
who wrote back immediately and, very

940
00:42:01,994 --> 00:42:04,914
apologetic and explained - this is

941
00:42:04,914 --> 00:42:07,114
another thing - it was the contractors who

942
00:42:07,114 --> 00:42:09,634
had put this on and we had not somehow

943
00:42:10,274 --> 00:42:12,394
been able to get them to get a

944
00:42:13,634 --> 00:42:16,514
proper keypad. So there's another thing

945
00:42:16,514 --> 00:42:18,194
we have to worry about, our relationship

946
00:42:18,194 --> 00:42:19,634
with our contractors and are our

947
00:42:19,634 --> 00:42:22,594
contractors on board with the way we are

948
00:42:22,594 --> 00:42:25,154
trying to approach things? And are they

949
00:42:25,154 --> 00:42:27,354
going to come to us with the helpful

950
00:42:27,354 --> 00:42:30,194
suggestions that will

951
00:42:30,354 --> 00:42:33,154
take us from the sort of

952
00:42:33,154 --> 00:42:35,154
basic level up to where we need to be?

953
00:42:36,114 --> 00:42:38,354
They did source another

954
00:42:39,234 --> 00:42:42,194
another keypad quite soon. And

955
00:42:42,434 --> 00:42:45,394
there it is on the right. It's, you know,

956
00:42:45,394 --> 00:42:47,474
not great, but the the numbers are

957
00:42:47,474 --> 00:42:49,554
indented so you can feel your way around.

958
00:42:50,994 --> 00:42:53,394
in the dark if you needed to. And you do

959
00:42:53,394 --> 00:42:56,314
need to feel your way around because in

960
00:42:56,314 --> 00:42:58,674
this picture, you see what those keypads

961
00:42:58,674 --> 00:43:00,594
look like to someone of my height,

962
00:43:04,114 --> 00:43:07,074
which is, you know, not uncommon. You're

963
00:43:07,074 --> 00:43:09,514
looking down at them from an angle. You

964
00:43:09,514 --> 00:43:11,834
can either sort of bend down or creep,

965
00:43:11,834 --> 00:43:14,754
groan and, and squint at the

966
00:43:14,754 --> 00:43:16,754
numbers, or you can rely on trying to see

967
00:43:16,874 --> 00:43:19,314
them from an angle. But here's another

968
00:43:19,314 --> 00:43:21,834
thing. They have to be down there because

969
00:43:21,834 --> 00:43:23,754
wheelchair users need to be able to get

970
00:43:23,754 --> 00:43:25,634
to them. That, again, that is without

971
00:43:25,634 --> 00:43:27,594
question. What's the

972
00:43:28,234 --> 00:43:30,114
solution to this?Maybe you have to have

973
00:43:30,114 --> 00:43:32,514
two keypads, or maybe you put your keypad

974
00:43:32,914 --> 00:43:34,914
on an angle so that you can at least see

975
00:43:34,914 --> 00:43:36,994
it at right angle, see it sort of

976
00:43:37,074 --> 00:43:39,714
straight on from above. But

977
00:43:40,274 --> 00:43:42,674
it's these details that really

978
00:43:45,314 --> 00:43:48,274
make the difference between a seamless,

979
00:43:48,354 --> 00:43:51,154
welcoming work environment and one that

980
00:43:51,154 --> 00:43:53,714
you're sort of having to struggle

981
00:43:54,274 --> 00:43:57,114
to get into. I should say that the

982
00:43:57,234 --> 00:43:59,794
very helpful young student who eventually

983
00:43:59,794 --> 00:44:02,434
let me in, totally in breach of all

984
00:44:02,434 --> 00:44:05,434
protocols, said, my

985
00:44:05,434 --> 00:44:07,794
God, that was a nightmare, that key. I

986
00:44:07,794 --> 00:44:10,434
can't do it either. So, you know,

987
00:44:10,994 --> 00:44:13,154
this is a case of benefiting everybody.

988
00:44:14,434 --> 00:44:16,434
Right, so you're in your

989
00:44:17,874 --> 00:44:20,674
building, and what are we

990
00:44:20,674 --> 00:44:23,154
going to do?Well, the first thing we

991
00:44:23,154 --> 00:44:25,154
might be faced with is stairs, if we're

992
00:44:27,034 --> 00:44:28,754
a stairs person, and we might go into a

993
00:44:28,754 --> 00:44:31,514
lift. Oh, by the way, just before we go

994
00:44:31,514 --> 00:44:34,034
upstairs, we might have gone upstairs in

995
00:44:34,034 --> 00:44:36,394
the lift, and the lift is the right hand

996
00:44:36,394 --> 00:44:38,594
one of those two keypads on that picture.

997
00:44:39,954 --> 00:44:42,914
Again, the same thing aboutYou're in a

998
00:44:42,914 --> 00:44:44,314
crowded lift with a whole lot of other

999
00:44:44,314 --> 00:44:46,114
people. You've got to see the thing at an

1000
00:44:46,114 --> 00:44:48,514
angle. The key,

1001
00:44:48,514 --> 00:44:51,234
The numbers aren't even in any sort of

1002
00:44:51,234 --> 00:44:53,154
logical order, like the top floor at the

1003
00:44:53,154 --> 00:44:54,834
top and the bottom floor at the bottom.

1004
00:44:57,154 --> 00:44:58,994
Lifts are not particularly easy.

1005
00:45:00,514 --> 00:45:03,354
However, these stairs, I have been

1006
00:45:03,354 --> 00:45:05,154
complaining, right? I've got the green ink

1007
00:45:05,154 --> 00:45:07,114
out. Well, I'm going to put it away again

1008
00:45:07,114 --> 00:45:09,114
because these stairs are lovely. These

1009
00:45:09,114 --> 00:45:11,314
are stairs in the maths building again.

1010
00:45:11,954 --> 00:45:14,674
And they have all the attributes of good

1011
00:45:14,674 --> 00:45:17,594
stairs. They are wide, so

1012
00:45:17,634 --> 00:45:20,114
that two people can pass without having

1013
00:45:20,114 --> 00:45:22,634
to manoeuvre. The

1014
00:45:22,754 --> 00:45:24,514
fronts of the steps are clearly

1015
00:45:24,514 --> 00:45:27,234
delineated. The number of steps in each

1016
00:45:27,234 --> 00:45:29,794
flight, 11, is the same throughout the

1017
00:45:29,794 --> 00:45:31,634
building. So you can kind of do it on

1018
00:45:31,634 --> 00:45:34,514
autopilot. The ergonomics of it are right

1019
00:45:34,514 --> 00:45:37,354
in the center of the

1020
00:45:37,354 --> 00:45:40,034
step length is good. The handrails are

1021
00:45:40,034 --> 00:45:42,194
good. There's a good contrast between the

1022
00:45:42,194 --> 00:45:45,074
floor and the walls. This is good design.

1023
00:45:45,394 --> 00:45:48,354
If you want to see some good stairs, go

1024
00:45:48,354 --> 00:45:50,314
to Maths and ask to be let in to have a

1025
00:45:50,314 --> 00:45:52,674
look at these stairs in the

1026
00:45:53,794 --> 00:45:55,474
interior of the building.

1027
00:45:59,634 --> 00:46:02,194
Yes, there are other stairs in the Maths

1028
00:46:02,314 --> 00:46:05,034
building which aren't so good. Am I

1029
00:46:05,034 --> 00:46:07,154
allowed to say the word seagulls here?

1030
00:46:08,914 --> 00:46:10,754
No, I thought not because,

1031
00:46:12,194 --> 00:46:14,994
a few years ago, water started

1032
00:46:14,994 --> 00:46:17,034
coming in through part of the glass roof

1033
00:46:17,034 --> 00:46:18,674
of the math building and the contractor

1034
00:46:18,674 --> 00:46:20,594
said, oh, it was a bird dropped a stone

1035
00:46:20,594 --> 00:46:23,554
on it. And we all said, oh, yeah. Well,

1036
00:46:23,554 --> 00:46:25,314
maybe it was true. Anyway, there are

1037
00:46:25,314 --> 00:46:28,314
places where water comes in and it had to

1038
00:46:28,314 --> 00:46:29,954
be caught by buckets and where it dropped

1039
00:46:29,994 --> 00:46:31,714
on the stairs, what do you do?You have a

1040
00:46:31,714 --> 00:46:34,594
trip hazard or you have

1041
00:46:35,634 --> 00:46:38,594
a sign. Anyway. What

1042
00:46:38,594 --> 00:46:40,754
do we do when we get to work?We go to a

1043
00:46:40,754 --> 00:46:43,234
meeting. We spend our time in

1044
00:46:43,234 --> 00:46:45,314
meetings and

1045
00:46:45,874 --> 00:46:47,634
meeting rooms. So

1046
00:46:49,154 --> 00:46:51,954
why is it that so many of our meeting

1047
00:46:51,954 --> 00:46:54,834
rooms are so bad?I

1048
00:46:54,834 --> 00:46:57,714
know that we're having to retrofit

1049
00:46:57,714 --> 00:47:00,194
in old buildings, but nonetheless, so

1050
00:47:00,194 --> 00:47:03,154
many meeting rooms are awful. The one

1051
00:47:03,154 --> 00:47:05,634
in this picture, with its glass

1052
00:47:05,634 --> 00:47:07,634
walls and the sun shining in,

1053
00:47:08,914 --> 00:47:11,634
is clearly a nice sort of architectural

1054
00:47:11,634 --> 00:47:13,474
conception, but it would be a horrible

1055
00:47:13,474 --> 00:47:15,834
building, a horrible room in which to

1056
00:47:15,834 --> 00:47:18,834
have a meeting. For many reasons, it

1057
00:47:18,834 --> 00:47:19,954
would become very hot.

1058
00:47:21,714 --> 00:47:23,234
If you were sitting on the wrong side,

1059
00:47:23,234 --> 00:47:25,634
you would see everybody as silhouettes

1060
00:47:25,634 --> 00:47:27,794
against a bright background.

1061
00:47:29,314 --> 00:47:31,074
You can imagine that not being a very

1062
00:47:31,154 --> 00:47:33,314
comfortable room in which to work at all.

1063
00:47:33,714 --> 00:47:35,594
That's a random picture off the internet.

1064
00:47:35,594 --> 00:47:38,434
I'll show you one of ours in a moment. So

1065
00:47:39,834 --> 00:47:42,834
what can we do?What

1066
00:47:42,834 --> 00:47:45,674
are the issues with meeting rooms?Well,

1067
00:47:47,074 --> 00:47:49,874
one of the issues is simply

1068
00:47:50,434 --> 00:47:52,354
the shape of the room. The room may be

1069
00:47:52,354 --> 00:47:54,674
very long and thin. We may be using long,

1070
00:47:54,674 --> 00:47:57,554
thin rooms for meetings. And

1071
00:47:57,554 --> 00:47:59,434
that means inevitably that the

1072
00:48:00,674 --> 00:48:03,314
people at the end of a table, either both

1073
00:48:03,314 --> 00:48:05,234
ends or the far end from the chair,

1074
00:48:05,234 --> 00:48:07,634
depending how it's arranged,are going to

1075
00:48:07,634 --> 00:48:08,914
end up being

1076
00:48:11,074 --> 00:48:13,714
far from the action,

1077
00:48:14,034 --> 00:48:16,754
very hard to follow without visual cues

1078
00:48:17,314 --> 00:48:20,114
and so on. So

1079
00:48:20,754 --> 00:48:22,674
that's certainly one thing.

1080
00:48:24,274 --> 00:48:25,794
We have meeting rooms where there is a

1081
00:48:25,794 --> 00:48:28,354
lot of external noise,

1082
00:48:28,594 --> 00:48:29,634
especially traffic,

1083
00:48:31,314 --> 00:48:34,194
but alsoin some ways,

1084
00:48:34,194 --> 00:48:36,514
maybe it's quite nice to know that people

1085
00:48:36,514 --> 00:48:38,234
are alive out there and that you're not

1086
00:48:38,234 --> 00:48:40,274
locked away in this hermetically sealed

1087
00:48:40,274 --> 00:48:42,274
room. But nonetheless,

1088
00:48:42,714 --> 00:48:45,554
when traffic noise is drowning out

1089
00:48:45,554 --> 00:48:47,634
speech, or let me put it thisway. When

1090
00:48:47,634 --> 00:48:50,594
you are working at the margins

1091
00:48:50,634 --> 00:48:52,434
of your hearing,

1092
00:48:53,554 --> 00:48:56,234
that extra bit of noise from traffic is

1093
00:48:56,274 --> 00:48:58,674
really seriously disruptive.

1094
00:49:00,274 --> 00:49:02,994
So external noise

1095
00:49:02,994 --> 00:49:05,074
is a problem. Internal noise.

1096
00:49:06,034 --> 00:49:08,354
Now, here's another area of

1097
00:49:08,594 --> 00:49:11,554
conflict, air conditioning. You need air

1098
00:49:11,554 --> 00:49:14,434
conditioning. And especially,

1099
00:49:14,434 --> 00:49:17,394
as we know, since COVID, you have to

1100
00:49:17,394 --> 00:49:19,594
have, you want, we realise the benefits

1101
00:49:19,594 --> 00:49:22,434
and indeed the necessity of having good

1102
00:49:22,594 --> 00:49:25,074
air changes in rooms. And that means air

1103
00:49:25,074 --> 00:49:28,034
conditioning, but air conditioning can be

1104
00:49:28,034 --> 00:49:29,954
very noisy. I don't think it always has

1105
00:49:29,954 --> 00:49:32,194
to be very noisy. Let's just pause for a

1106
00:49:32,194 --> 00:49:33,234
moment and listen.

1107
00:49:35,714 --> 00:49:37,794
It's pretty quiet in this room. I'm sure there

1108
00:49:37,794 --> 00:49:39,754
is air coming in from somewhere, but it's

1109
00:49:39,754 --> 00:49:42,754
pretty quiet. And it's very quiet

1110
00:49:42,754 --> 00:49:44,834
in some of the bigger rooms in the Maths

1111
00:49:44,914 --> 00:49:47,474
Building and very noisy in others. Some

1112
00:49:47,474 --> 00:49:49,714
of the committee rooms in Wellington

1113
00:49:49,714 --> 00:49:52,674
Square, where all the key

1114
00:49:52,674 --> 00:49:55,434
decisions are made, are

1115
00:49:55,474 --> 00:49:57,074
really very noisy indeed.

1116
00:49:58,434 --> 00:50:00,994
So again, this is a conflict

1117
00:50:00,994 --> 00:50:03,794
between fresh air and

1118
00:50:04,434 --> 00:50:06,834
getting rid of the CO2, which makes us

1119
00:50:06,994 --> 00:50:09,754
makes us feel stupid. And on the other

1120
00:50:09,754 --> 00:50:11,554
hand, having to sit through the noise of

1121
00:50:12,514 --> 00:50:15,074
having our meetings, as it were, on an

1122
00:50:15,074 --> 00:50:18,034
aeroplane. Again, you don't

1123
00:50:18,034 --> 00:50:19,634
want to end up with a building where you

1124
00:50:19,634 --> 00:50:22,554
say, 'Oh, our meeting rooms are

1125
00:50:22,834 --> 00:50:25,154
very noisy'. We need to be thinking about

1126
00:50:25,154 --> 00:50:28,154
this from the word go. And we need

1127
00:50:28,154 --> 00:50:30,994
to be working with our architects to

1128
00:50:30,994 --> 00:50:33,634
make this work from the word go.

1129
00:50:33,634 --> 00:50:36,594
Because if we say towards the end of a

1130
00:50:36,594 --> 00:50:39,274
process, 'Oh,We don't want our

1131
00:50:39,274 --> 00:50:40,994
meeting room to be noisy'. They'll say,

1132
00:50:40,994 --> 00:50:43,274
'sorry, the M&E is all designed. We can't

1133
00:50:43,274 --> 00:50:45,834
change it now.' And we've got such and

1134
00:50:45,834 --> 00:50:47,954
such a spec. So,

1135
00:50:49,154 --> 00:50:51,474
that is a consideration.

1136
00:50:52,674 --> 00:50:55,394
And there is the question of

1137
00:50:55,434 --> 00:50:57,714
also of hybrid meetings. Now,

1138
00:50:58,594 --> 00:51:00,794
I've said this before. This particular

1139
00:51:00,794 --> 00:51:02,514
room is an excellent one for a hybrid

1140
00:51:02,514 --> 00:51:05,314
meeting. And there's something

1141
00:51:05,314 --> 00:51:07,874
clever about the IT that means that when

1142
00:51:07,874 --> 00:51:10,514
somebody speaks from in the audience, it

1143
00:51:10,514 --> 00:51:13,154
sort of zooms in on them and you can see

1144
00:51:13,314 --> 00:51:14,874
who it is and you can hear them. And the

1145
00:51:14,914 --> 00:51:17,474
acoustics are very good too. But

1146
00:51:18,434 --> 00:51:20,274
most of our rooms are pretty terrible for

1147
00:51:20,274 --> 00:51:22,754
hybrid meetings. And the person

1148
00:51:22,914 --> 00:51:25,834
online is kind of isolated. I know

1149
00:51:25,834 --> 00:51:27,634
they're isolated anyway, a bit,

1150
00:51:28,794 --> 00:51:30,594
but they're kind of isolated from the

1151
00:51:30,594 --> 00:51:33,594
main room. So that's another thingfor

1152
00:51:33,594 --> 00:51:36,554
us to be thinking

1153
00:51:36,554 --> 00:51:38,554
about. And there's something else I was

1154
00:51:38,594 --> 00:51:40,034
going to say on this one. Maybe it

1155
00:51:40,074 --> 00:51:42,754
doesn't matter. So overall,

1156
00:51:43,234 --> 00:51:44,914
I think we can ask ourselves a question.

1157
00:51:44,914 --> 00:51:47,234
Do our meeting rooms help us make

1158
00:51:47,794 --> 00:51:50,594
good decisions? You know,

1159
00:51:50,674 --> 00:51:53,354
it's not a question we ask ourselves, but

1160
00:51:53,354 --> 00:51:54,994
we should, because

1161
00:51:56,354 --> 00:51:57,994
we should be making our decisions in the

1162
00:51:57,994 --> 00:51:59,674
best conditions possible to make

1163
00:51:59,674 --> 00:52:01,554
decisions in. And I don't think that

1164
00:52:02,754 --> 00:52:05,314
making decisions in rooms where you can't

1165
00:52:05,874 --> 00:52:08,594
hear yourself speak is going to be very

1166
00:52:08,594 --> 00:52:09,554
good at all.

1167
00:52:11,314 --> 00:52:14,114
If you are, by the way, beginning

1168
00:52:14,114 --> 00:52:16,674
to zone out at this point, why don't you

1169
00:52:16,674 --> 00:52:18,594
spend the rest of the lecture designing

1170
00:52:18,594 --> 00:52:21,594
in your head the ideal meeting room for,

1171
00:52:21,594 --> 00:52:24,434
it will give you something, you'd be

1172
00:52:24,434 --> 00:52:25,474
something to think about.

1173
00:52:27,154 --> 00:52:29,074
while I carry on.

1174
00:52:29,634 --> 00:52:31,914
This is one of our meeting rooms. This is

1175
00:52:31,914 --> 00:52:34,194
the Quillen Room in the Maths Building.

1176
00:52:34,754 --> 00:52:36,754
It's actually a nice room in many ways,

1177
00:52:37,794 --> 00:52:40,114
but it's not a good meeting room. It's

1178
00:52:40,114 --> 00:52:42,434
got all the attributes of a difficult

1179
00:52:42,434 --> 00:52:44,194
meeting room. It has a

1180
00:52:45,234 --> 00:52:48,234
very large glass wall, which I think the

1181
00:52:48,274 --> 00:52:51,154
architects conceived of as a clear wall.

1182
00:52:51,154 --> 00:52:53,554
And the mathematicians said no, we don't

1183
00:52:53,554 --> 00:52:56,114
want people looking in, we want privacy.

1184
00:52:56,994 --> 00:52:59,474
And so you ended up with an opaque

1185
00:52:59,474 --> 00:53:01,594
wall, but it's still very bright when the

1186
00:53:01,594 --> 00:53:04,234
sun shines through the glass roof and

1187
00:53:04,234 --> 00:53:06,234
onto that wall. So anyone sitting on that

1188
00:53:06,234 --> 00:53:08,714
side of a table is, you're sort of

1189
00:53:09,154 --> 00:53:12,114
peering at them. It's a very long table,

1190
00:53:12,434 --> 00:53:14,714
the people at the end. Well, the people

1191
00:53:14,714 --> 00:53:16,434
at the end tend to be the ones who

1192
00:53:17,474 --> 00:53:19,794
kind of like ostentatiously not quite

1193
00:53:20,234 --> 00:53:22,674
paying attention and then

1194
00:53:22,674 --> 00:53:24,794
occasionally chip in with a question and

1195
00:53:24,794 --> 00:53:26,754
thenleave 5 minutes early.

1196
00:53:27,954 --> 00:53:30,834
We all know, we all know about, oh, I

1197
00:53:30,834 --> 00:53:32,354
could write you a book about the types of

1198
00:53:32,354 --> 00:53:33,314
people in committees.

1199
00:53:35,394 --> 00:53:37,794
It's very hot because of all the solar

1200
00:53:39,154 --> 00:53:42,034
heating and the air conditioning	

1201
00:53:42,034 --> 00:53:43,674
struggles and is a bit noisy. The

1202
00:53:43,674 --> 00:53:46,594
screens are a long way away and not

1203
00:53:46,594 --> 00:53:49,114
easy to see. It's not a good meeting

1204
00:53:49,154 --> 00:53:52,114
room. I think it's a compromise between

1205
00:53:52,874 --> 00:53:55,074
an architect's design,

1206
00:53:55,914 --> 00:53:57,914
a bit of vanity but also a

1207
00:53:58,834 --> 00:54:00,874
trying to shoehorn into a

1208
00:54:01,554 --> 00:54:03,234
difficult brief. So

1209
00:54:04,714 --> 00:54:06,194
an interesting case study.

1210
00:54:07,754 --> 00:54:10,194
So you have had your meeting.

1211
00:54:10,754 --> 00:54:13,114
Maybe you're not a staff member, maybe

1212
00:54:13,114 --> 00:54:14,994
you're a student and you go to a lecture.

1213
00:54:15,714 --> 00:54:17,954
This is one of my colleagues, Jan,

1214
00:54:18,594 --> 00:54:20,194
giving a lecture, a very interesting

1215
00:54:20,194 --> 00:54:22,834
lecture about probability. And this is a

1216
00:54:22,834 --> 00:54:25,554
still from the movie,

1217
00:54:26,434 --> 00:54:28,354
given in our main lecture theatre,

1218
00:54:29,394 --> 00:54:31,634
L1, which is a lovely lecture theatre

1219
00:54:31,634 --> 00:54:34,194
with excellent acoustics.

1220
00:54:34,674 --> 00:54:37,314
That does not, by the way, excuse

1221
00:54:38,514 --> 00:54:40,354
not having hearing assistance

1222
00:54:41,074 --> 00:54:44,074
because even in a room, this is not

1223
00:54:44,074 --> 00:54:45,554
a large lecture theatre, it's a

1224
00:54:45,554 --> 00:54:47,954
medium-sized lecture theatre. Even in a

1225
00:54:47,954 --> 00:54:50,834
room a third of this size, you would

1226
00:54:50,834 --> 00:54:52,674
still want hearing assistance. Quite a

1227
00:54:52,674 --> 00:54:54,594
lot of people would find it very helpful.

1228
00:54:55,074 --> 00:54:57,234
And I'll come back to that in a moment.

1229
00:54:58,034 --> 00:55:00,034
So there is Jan giving a lecture about

1230
00:55:00,434 --> 00:55:03,074
stopping times. I listened to a bit of it,

1231
00:55:03,114 --> 00:55:04,594
it and I learnt something, so that was

1232
00:55:04,594 --> 00:55:07,074
good. Now, when you look at the picture,

1233
00:55:07,234 --> 00:55:09,994
you can't really see his face because the

1234
00:55:10,034 --> 00:55:12,354
illumination is incorrect.

1235
00:55:13,114 --> 00:55:15,354
The illumination of the lecture theatre

1236
00:55:15,354 --> 00:55:18,274
is incorrect. You have

1237
00:55:18,594 --> 00:55:20,754
a whiteboard, which has to be illuminated

1238
00:55:20,754 --> 00:55:22,354
so that you can see what Jan has been

1239
00:55:22,354 --> 00:55:25,234
writing. Sometimes you have a screen,

1240
00:55:25,314 --> 00:55:27,994
as we do today. Then you

1241
00:55:27,994 --> 00:55:30,874
have the speaker. The speaker needs to be

1242
00:55:30,874 --> 00:55:33,874
illuminated from the front, so that

1243
00:55:33,954 --> 00:55:36,594
the visual cues are there. And,

1244
00:55:37,714 --> 00:55:39,874
you know, these visual cues, everybody uses visual

1245
00:55:39,874 --> 00:55:42,514
cues. if I put my hand in front of my

1246
00:55:42,514 --> 00:55:45,234
face like this, so that you can't see my

1247
00:55:45,234 --> 00:55:48,074
lips, you won't be able to hear me quite

1248
00:55:48,074 --> 00:55:50,754
as clearly as you will when I take it

1249
00:55:50,754 --> 00:55:53,074
away because you are,

1250
00:55:53,154 --> 00:55:54,954
however little and however

1251
00:55:54,954 --> 00:55:57,074
subconsciously, you are using visual

1252
00:55:57,074 --> 00:55:59,954
cues. Those cues are

1253
00:55:59,954 --> 00:56:02,514
not really available. In fact, we even

1254
00:56:02,514 --> 00:56:04,834
have to bring in lights in Maths, when we

1255
00:56:04,834 --> 00:56:06,514
have a big event, a big public event,

1256
00:56:07,154 --> 00:56:09,674
when we have an important person coming,

1257
00:56:09,674 --> 00:56:11,554
like the Vice Chancellor coming to speak.

1258
00:56:12,034 --> 00:56:14,194
We bring in lights to

1259
00:56:15,554 --> 00:56:17,274
make sure that the illumination is good.

1260
00:56:17,634 --> 00:56:20,114
So that is not good. Here I am afraid

1261
00:56:20,114 --> 00:56:22,194
these lights here are not helping with

1262
00:56:22,434 --> 00:56:24,634
seeing what's on the screen. I prepared

1263
00:56:24,634 --> 00:56:27,154
the lecture on dark

1264
00:56:27,154 --> 00:56:28,794
slides because I think that's actually

1265
00:56:28,794 --> 00:56:31,434
easier to read and more comfortable on

1266
00:56:31,434 --> 00:56:33,234
the eye. But it doesn't work in here,

1267
00:56:33,234 --> 00:56:36,074
does it? because of the

1268
00:56:36,434 --> 00:56:38,354
contamination from the front row of

1269
00:56:38,354 --> 00:56:41,234
lights. It's the one flaw that I've found

1270
00:56:41,234 --> 00:56:43,034
in this otherwise excellent lecture

1271
00:56:43,034 --> 00:56:45,714
theatre, is that one of

1272
00:56:45,714 --> 00:56:46,194
lighting.

1273
00:56:50,354 --> 00:56:52,634
This is the same lecture theatre from the

1274
00:56:53,994 --> 00:56:56,834
other side. And the story of this

1275
00:56:56,834 --> 00:56:59,154
lighting is, roughly speaking, that we

1276
00:56:59,154 --> 00:57:01,634
did realise, that we did say

1277
00:57:02,194 --> 00:57:03,874
you have got to arrange the lighting so

1278
00:57:03,954 --> 00:57:05,994
that, for example, when the screen is

1279
00:57:05,994 --> 00:57:08,114
being used, the speaker can stand in a

1280
00:57:08,114 --> 00:57:09,874
convenient place and be illuminated

1281
00:57:09,874 --> 00:57:12,434
without contaminating the image on the

1282
00:57:12,434 --> 00:57:14,834
screen. So, you know, light goes into

1283
00:57:14,834 --> 00:57:17,554
straight lines and the pixels on your

1284
00:57:17,554 --> 00:57:20,354
screen are, you know, they are there that

1285
00:57:20,354 --> 00:57:23,114
big, that is how precisely you can control

1286
00:57:23,114 --> 00:57:24,994
light, if you have the right kit.

1287
00:57:26,274 --> 00:57:28,954
there's hundreds of years of experience

1288
00:57:28,954 --> 00:57:31,554
of lighting theatres. We must be able to

1289
00:57:31,554 --> 00:57:33,754
get this right. We did raise it with the

1290
00:57:33,794 --> 00:57:35,874
architects and there was

1291
00:57:35,874 --> 00:57:38,354
resistance. I think, actually,

1292
00:57:38,354 --> 00:57:40,514
because, as you see in this picture, they

1293
00:57:40,514 --> 00:57:42,554
have a very elegant design in which the

1294
00:57:43,154 --> 00:57:45,794
curves in the ceiling mirror the curves

1295
00:57:45,794 --> 00:57:48,394
in the seating, and

1296
00:57:48,754 --> 00:57:50,834
the whole room has a kind of integrity,

1297
00:57:51,234 --> 00:57:52,914
and to put lights in the front of the

1298
00:57:52,914 --> 00:57:55,634
ceiling would have spoilt that. The

1299
00:57:55,634 --> 00:57:57,514
difficulties were all about - oh, there is

1300
00:57:57,514 --> 00:57:59,394
no power up there. Well there is power

1301
00:57:59,394 --> 00:58:00,994
up there. Look, there are lights

1302
00:58:02,034 --> 00:58:04,834
and so on and so forth. But

1303
00:58:04,914 --> 00:58:06,754
the real truth is, it was too late in the

1304
00:58:06,754 --> 00:58:09,234
process. It was not built into the brief

1305
00:58:09,514 --> 00:58:11,394
and it was not built into the thinking.

1306
00:58:15,514 --> 00:58:18,114
What have we got here? Hearing.

1307
00:58:18,834 --> 00:58:21,394
Yes. I've talked about visuals mostly

1308
00:58:21,394 --> 00:58:24,234
because, well, somehow the

1309
00:58:24,234 --> 00:58:26,274
consequences of running into something

1310
00:58:26,434 --> 00:58:28,754
visually are, that you didn't see, are

1311
00:58:28,754 --> 00:58:30,594
worse than the consequences of not

1312
00:58:30,594 --> 00:58:32,994
hearing something you didn't hear.

1313
00:58:33,394 --> 00:58:34,914
But nonetheless, hearing is something

1314
00:58:34,914 --> 00:58:36,434
that we need to think about more.

1315
00:58:37,874 --> 00:58:40,674
Working in a noisy environment, it just,

1316
00:58:40,834 --> 00:58:42,674
well, it's not good for you for a start.

1317
00:58:42,994 --> 00:58:45,474
Ear protectors are there for a reason.

1318
00:58:46,034 --> 00:58:48,794
Working in a noisy reception because

1319
00:58:48,914 --> 00:58:51,394
there is not enough sound-proofing cannot

1320
00:58:51,394 --> 00:58:52,754
be good for

1321
00:58:53,874 --> 00:58:56,634
anybody. I've talked about the

1322
00:58:57,154 --> 00:58:58,834
the impact of air conditioning.

1323
00:59:00,114 --> 00:59:01,394
I've talked about

1324
00:59:04,674 --> 00:59:06,274
what else have I got here? I've got

1325
00:59:09,074 --> 00:59:10,394
should know my end slides better,

1326
00:59:10,394 --> 00:59:12,034
shouldn't I? I've talked about

1327
00:59:17,154 --> 00:59:19,314
Yes, good acoustics, not excusing

1328
00:59:20,234 --> 00:59:22,834
having no hearing

1329
00:59:23,314 --> 00:59:26,274
assistance. The building on the

1330
00:59:26,274 --> 00:59:28,834
left in this picture is the Earth

1331
00:59:28,834 --> 00:59:30,954
Sciences building, another recent Oxford

1332
00:59:30,954 --> 00:59:31,474
building,

1333
00:59:35,954 --> 00:59:38,354
1980, I guess.

1334
00:59:38,994 --> 00:59:41,874
And it has an atrium with

1335
00:59:41,954 --> 00:59:43,914
graduate study spaces which open

1336
00:59:43,914 --> 00:59:46,794
directly on to that with no gaps.

1337
00:59:48,794 --> 00:59:50,834
which are apparently not at all popular

1338
00:59:50,834 --> 00:59:52,554
because there's a lot of noise from the

1339
00:59:52,554 --> 00:59:54,674
atrium which gets into the heads of the

1340
00:59:54,674 --> 00:59:57,194
people who are working there. Some people

1341
00:59:57,194 --> 00:59:59,834
love working in a caf. There are always

1342
00:59:59,874 --> 01:00:01,634
people in the Maths Caf working but

1343
01:00:01,634 --> 01:00:03,034
there are lots of people who need peace

1344
01:00:03,034 --> 01:00:05,874
and quiet to deliver their best

1345
01:00:05,874 --> 01:00:06,994
work. They need to be able to

1346
01:00:06,994 --> 01:00:09,874
concentrate. They need to be able to

1347
01:00:10,274 --> 01:00:12,114
mutter to themselves if they do some

1348
01:00:12,114 --> 01:00:14,234
complicated calculation. I know I do.

1349
01:00:15,474 --> 01:00:17,434
SoThat's another

1350
01:00:18,514 --> 01:00:21,234
piece of design that doesn't work when it

1351
01:00:21,234 --> 01:00:24,194
is the only form of work space in

1352
01:00:24,194 --> 01:00:24,834
the building.

1353
01:00:27,834 --> 01:00:30,634
So, you know, that's just a

1354
01:00:30,634 --> 01:00:33,474
few thoughts on hearing. And it's the

1355
01:00:33,474 --> 01:00:36,434
same thing about thinking, thinking

1356
01:00:36,434 --> 01:00:39,074
through from the beginning, what

1357
01:00:39,514 --> 01:00:41,634
are we going to, how are we going to do

1358
01:00:41,634 --> 01:00:43,354
this and how are we going to optimize the

1359
01:00:44,514 --> 01:00:46,714
the experience for everybody, because if

1360
01:00:46,714 --> 01:00:48,674
we optimise it for everybody, then we

1361
01:00:48,674 --> 01:00:51,474
will certainly be be doing the right

1362
01:00:51,474 --> 01:00:53,314
thing by people who are

1363
01:00:54,274 --> 01:00:56,834
in the in the 24% that Irene

1364
01:00:56,834 --> 01:00:59,514
mentioned who are who are disabled.

1365
01:01:02,994 --> 01:01:03,554
So.

1366
01:01:05,874 --> 01:01:08,194
Oh, I know what I was going to say,

1367
01:01:08,194 --> 01:01:09,994
the last thing on hearing

1368
01:01:09,994 --> 01:01:11,154
before I move on.

1369
01:01:13,234 --> 01:01:16,034
Hearing assistance is a very

1370
01:01:16,034 --> 01:01:18,714
tricky subject, actually, and I know this

1371
01:01:18,714 --> 01:01:21,114
from experience. There are various

1372
01:01:21,114 --> 01:01:23,794
systems around the place, many of them,

1373
01:01:23,954 --> 01:01:25,874
almost all of them, unsatisfactory.

1374
01:01:26,754 --> 01:01:29,074
There are infra-red ones which tend

1375
01:01:29,794 --> 01:01:31,954
not to work terribly well and can get

1376
01:01:31,954 --> 01:01:34,194
blocked by not having line of sight

1377
01:01:34,194 --> 01:01:36,754
communication. There's Bluetooth through your

1378
01:01:36,754 --> 01:01:39,154
phone, which is fine if your phone talks

1379
01:01:39,154 --> 01:01:41,474
to your hearing aid, but you have

1380
01:01:41,634 --> 01:01:44,634
latency, which is to say that the sound comes

1381
01:01:44,634 --> 01:01:47,554
to you after a processing delay,

1382
01:01:48,234 --> 01:01:50,274
and so it's not synced with the action.

1383
01:01:51,074 --> 01:01:52,874
There are here induction loops, which is

1384
01:01:52,874 --> 01:01:55,274
what I think that we have in this room. The

1385
01:01:55,274 --> 01:01:57,314
one in here, I should say, is excellent.

1386
01:01:57,314 --> 01:01:58,954
I've said this before, it's a really good

1387
01:01:58,954 --> 01:02:01,314
one, it works very very well in various

1388
01:02:01,314 --> 01:02:03,714
places in the room, but they are

1389
01:02:03,874 --> 01:02:06,514
difficult. My feeling is that if we were

1390
01:02:06,514 --> 01:02:08,314
to build them into the design from the

1391
01:02:08,314 --> 01:02:10,994
very beginning, they would be a robust

1392
01:02:10,994 --> 01:02:11,634
and

1393
01:02:13,474 --> 01:02:16,314
widely usable solution. But I think

1394
01:02:16,314 --> 01:02:18,514
they always get put in at the last

1395
01:02:18,514 --> 01:02:21,394
minute, at the last stages,

1396
01:02:21,394 --> 01:02:23,634
not built in as an essential part of the

1397
01:02:23,634 --> 01:02:24,114
building.

1398
01:02:26,874 --> 01:02:29,714
So let's move on

1399
01:02:29,874 --> 01:02:32,674
then. We're more or less done, I

1400
01:02:32,674 --> 01:02:35,194
think. Oh, no.

1401
01:02:36,114 --> 01:02:39,074
Oh, no. We've got on to IT. I'd forgotten

1402
01:02:39,194 --> 01:02:41,794
IT. Oh, yes. Oh, yes, IT!

1403
01:02:41,954 --> 01:02:44,754
Well, now... How to lose

1404
01:02:44,754 --> 01:02:45,714
friends instantly!

1405
01:02:48,634 --> 01:02:51,554
IT is so difficult. IT is difficult.

1406
01:02:53,634 --> 01:02:56,194
Especially in Oxford, because the Oxford

1407
01:02:56,434 --> 01:02:58,754
IT system is so spread out

1408
01:02:59,234 --> 01:03:01,954
and diverse. But even if it was command

1409
01:03:01,954 --> 01:03:03,394
and control from the centre, it would

1410
01:03:03,394 --> 01:03:05,834
still be very, very difficult. You have a

1411
01:03:05,834 --> 01:03:08,034
huge range of users and they all have

1412
01:03:08,034 --> 01:03:10,674
strong opinions and they are prepared to

1413
01:03:10,674 --> 01:03:13,554
let everybody know about them. You have

1414
01:03:14,954 --> 01:03:17,554
a huge range of devices. You have Macs and

1415
01:03:17,554 --> 01:03:19,474
you have Linux and you have Windows and

1416
01:03:19,474 --> 01:03:21,634
you have other things probably as well.

1417
01:03:21,954 --> 01:03:23,554
You have mobile devices. You have

1418
01:03:23,554 --> 01:03:25,474
desktops. You have a

1419
01:03:26,354 --> 01:03:28,594
background which is constantly changing

1420
01:03:28,994 --> 01:03:31,714
as technology evolves. And our poor IT

1421
01:03:31,794 --> 01:03:33,794
staff are expected to keep up with this.

1422
01:03:35,074 --> 01:03:38,034
So they have a really tough time of it.

1423
01:03:38,834 --> 01:03:41,634
And yet, and yet... So

1424
01:03:41,874 --> 01:03:44,554
I think you can tell that there is a

1425
01:03:45,874 --> 01:03:47,434
couple of personal complaints coming

1426
01:03:47,434 --> 01:03:50,434
along here. I

1427
01:03:50,434 --> 01:03:52,594
will just make a couple of points here.

1428
01:03:53,314 --> 01:03:55,954
One of them is that we are

1429
01:03:55,954 --> 01:03:58,674
very prone to buying software which does

1430
01:03:58,674 --> 01:04:01,634
not adopt the standard high

1431
01:04:01,634 --> 01:04:03,954
contrast themes on Windows.

1432
01:04:05,074 --> 01:04:07,914
and or indeed other operating systems,

1433
01:04:07,914 --> 01:04:10,914
but mostly on Windows. So if

1434
01:04:10,914 --> 01:04:13,314
you are like me, and indeed like many

1435
01:04:13,314 --> 01:04:15,074
ordinary people, I'm surprised that the

1436
01:04:15,074 --> 01:04:17,154
number of people I talk to, and I say

1437
01:04:17,154 --> 01:04:18,914
'ordinary' I mean people not like me...

1438
01:04:21,554 --> 01:04:24,194
the number of people who like using

1439
01:04:24,914 --> 01:04:27,074
light text on a dark background, it's so

1440
01:04:27,074 --> 01:04:30,074
much easier on the eye. And we,

1441
01:04:30,194 --> 01:04:31,874
you know, why should backgrounds be white

1442
01:04:31,874 --> 01:04:34,274
just because paper is white?So

1443
01:04:35,314 --> 01:04:38,194
we have training, training resources like

1444
01:04:38,354 --> 01:04:40,994
these in Health and Safety

1445
01:04:40,994 --> 01:04:43,714
and Information Security.

1446
01:04:43,754 --> 01:04:46,114
which do not have accessible versions.

1447
01:04:46,114 --> 01:04:48,514
So I remain a walking health

1448
01:04:48,514 --> 01:04:51,234
and safety risk and a walking information

1449
01:04:51,234 --> 01:04:53,914
security risk. I'm sorry about that. But

1450
01:04:53,914 --> 01:04:55,714
there really is nothing I can do about it

1451
01:04:56,274 --> 01:04:58,634
because I cannot actually read those

1452
01:04:58,674 --> 01:05:01,634
screens. except by taking about half

1453
01:05:01,634 --> 01:05:03,874
an hour per page, and I'm not prepared to

1454
01:05:03,874 --> 01:05:05,994
do that. The one at the top is

1455
01:05:05,994 --> 01:05:08,874
so-called accessible text which puts

1456
01:05:09,074 --> 01:05:11,474
the text which is very small in black

1457
01:05:11,474 --> 01:05:14,434
boxes. You

1458
01:05:14,434 --> 01:05:16,314
can read it, but again, you have to work

1459
01:05:16,354 --> 01:05:18,434
very hard. It's not the effortless thing

1460
01:05:18,434 --> 01:05:21,234
that you have to have in a critical

1461
01:05:21,394 --> 01:05:23,634
and important training video.

1462
01:05:24,594 --> 01:05:26,834
I should say that the inrehearsal

1463
01:05:27,234 --> 01:05:29,154
videos that the university has are much

1464
01:05:29,154 --> 01:05:31,154
better in this respect. But these ones

1465
01:05:31,554 --> 01:05:33,794
come out of CoSy and are absolutely,

1466
01:05:34,434 --> 01:05:37,314
absolutely terrible. So

1467
01:05:37,394 --> 01:05:38,954
we have weaknesses like this.

1468
01:05:38,954 --> 01:05:40,594
I do not get the feeling that

1469
01:05:40,754 --> 01:05:42,594
accessibility is yet

1470
01:05:43,874 --> 01:05:46,874
bottom-up in our IT. As I said,

1471
01:05:46,874 --> 01:05:49,394
I think this is really hard to do. But I

1472
01:05:49,434 --> 01:05:51,074
was very encouraged to listen to a

1473
01:05:51,074 --> 01:05:53,954
podcast recently with Anne Trefethen and

1474
01:05:53,954 --> 01:05:56,594
colleagues, in which they talked about how

1475
01:05:56,634 --> 01:05:59,474
accessibility was going to be built into

1476
01:05:59,594 --> 01:06:02,594
IT far more than it is at the moment.

1477
01:06:03,314 --> 01:06:05,954
And again, this will benefit everybody

1478
01:06:06,274 --> 01:06:08,394
far more than just a small number.

1479
01:06:09,914 --> 01:06:12,434
So I am approaching the end of my time, I

1480
01:06:12,434 --> 01:06:15,074
think. I have approached it, haven't I?

1481
01:06:16,514 --> 01:06:17,914
Oh, in that case, I'll wrap up very

1482
01:06:17,914 --> 01:06:19,394
quickly because I can wrap up very

1483
01:06:19,394 --> 01:06:20,914
quickly. I apologise for that.

1484
01:06:22,354 --> 01:06:25,074
Once you get me going... So, some

1485
01:06:25,074 --> 01:06:26,994
final thoughts: first of all,

1486
01:06:28,274 --> 01:06:30,594
we have to build in accessibility into

1487
01:06:30,594 --> 01:06:32,594
our design from the bottom up and from

1488
01:06:32,994 --> 01:06:34,754
the very beginning. It's absolutely

1489
01:06:34,754 --> 01:06:37,434
essential that we do that. I think we

1490
01:06:37,434 --> 01:06:40,434
need ways of documenting

1491
01:06:40,434 --> 01:06:42,914
that and making sure

1492
01:06:43,634 --> 01:06:46,514
that we are not relying on individuals

1493
01:06:47,234 --> 01:06:49,954
to make our projects accessible and

1494
01:06:50,034 --> 01:06:52,114
inclusive. So,

1495
01:06:54,594 --> 01:06:57,474
we had - and this feeds

1496
01:06:57,474 --> 01:06:59,314
into the interface with our architects

1497
01:06:59,314 --> 01:07:01,714
and our designers and everybody else.

1498
01:07:03,514 --> 01:07:05,154
So I went and read the University's

1499
01:07:05,154 --> 01:07:07,634
Accessibility Design Philosophy document.

1500
01:07:07,954 --> 01:07:10,354
I did not have high expectations; but it

1501
01:07:10,354 --> 01:07:11,834
document. which says a lot of the things

1502
01:07:11,834 --> 01:07:14,594
I wanted to see said.

1503
01:07:14,594 --> 01:07:16,594
I think we can use that document. I think

1504
01:07:17,474 --> 01:07:19,714
we can take it and we can build on It,

1505
01:07:19,714 --> 01:07:22,194
and we can make it into

1506
01:07:22,194 --> 01:07:23,434
something which is really authoritative

1507
01:07:25,394 --> 01:07:27,394
in this sphere and informs all

1508
01:07:27,394 --> 01:07:30,314
of our projects, every single one of

1509
01:07:30,314 --> 01:07:32,274
them, for the

1510
01:07:32,274 --> 01:07:35,074
future. I really think that we've got to

1511
01:07:35,074 --> 01:07:37,914
do that and I think we've got to gather

1512
01:07:37,914 --> 01:07:39,634
the knowledgefrom our community of

1513
01:07:39,634 --> 01:07:42,354
people, across the whole

1514
01:07:42,354 --> 01:07:45,034
University. I think we need to recognise

1515
01:07:45,034 --> 01:07:47,594
that this is an important job and

1516
01:07:47,594 --> 01:07:50,434
we need to, for example, use our

1517
01:07:50,594 --> 01:07:53,594
system of responsibility allowances to

1518
01:07:53,594 --> 01:07:56,194
pay people for doing it and to give them

1519
01:07:56,194 --> 01:07:58,594
the time to do it. In other words we

1520
01:07:58,594 --> 01:08:00,834
shouldn't rely on people in the

1521
01:08:00,834 --> 01:08:02,874
disability and non-disability community

1522
01:08:03,714 --> 01:08:06,514
to give their timeto this sort of thing.

1523
01:08:07,154 --> 01:08:09,554
It's a professional thing. It's part of

1524
01:08:09,714 --> 01:08:11,954
our professional endeavour and we should

1525
01:08:11,954 --> 01:08:13,874
recognise it as such.

1526
01:08:13,874 --> 01:08:15,954
I have the idea that we should give all

1527
01:08:17,234 --> 01:08:20,114
our architects and designers, and our contractors,

1528
01:08:20,114 --> 01:08:22,034
too, what I would call

1529
01:08:22,034 --> 01:08:24,274
accessibility tours, which would be a

1530
01:08:24,274 --> 01:08:26,074
kind of walking version of what I have been

1531
01:08:26,074 --> 01:08:28,034
talking about with my slides. In other

1532
01:08:28,034 --> 01:08:29,874
words, you would take them round and

1533
01:08:29,874 --> 01:08:32,834
show them some of our buildings, show them

1534
01:08:32,834 --> 01:08:35,074
the successes, show them the failures -

1535
01:08:35,074 --> 01:08:37,314
very important to show them the failures -

1536
01:08:37,354 --> 01:08:38,994
say 'We don't want any of those'. Talk

1537
01:08:39,514 --> 01:08:41,794
about the desires. Talk with the people in

1538
01:08:41,794 --> 01:08:44,514
the departments concerned. But really

1539
01:08:44,514 --> 01:08:47,314
build this into their thinking before

1540
01:08:47,954 --> 01:08:49,594
they start putting pen to paper or

1541
01:08:49,594 --> 01:08:51,954
stylus to screen or however they, however

1542
01:08:52,674 --> 01:08:55,074
they do it these days. So I think that's

1543
01:08:55,074 --> 01:08:57,274
a really, that's an important thing to

1544
01:08:57,274 --> 01:09:00,194
do. And overall,

1545
01:09:00,194 --> 01:09:02,434
overall,

1546
01:09:03,154 --> 01:09:03,794
I would like to pose, I would like

1547
01:09:06,034 --> 01:09:09,034
to pose a challenge. Have I got to

1548
01:09:09,034 --> 01:09:11,994
my challenge yet? I would like to

1549
01:09:11,994 --> 01:09:14,994
pose the challenge, which

1550
01:09:14,994 --> 01:09:17,714
is - skipping ahead -

1551
01:09:17,714 --> 01:09:20,514
I would like to pose a challenge,

1552
01:09:20,514 --> 01:09:22,754
which is: Can we make Oxford

1553
01:09:22,754 --> 01:09:25,714
a beacon institution in this respect?I

1554
01:09:26,194 --> 01:09:29,154
think we are in a good place. We've got a

1555
01:09:29,154 --> 01:09:31,194
lot of hard work and thought that's gone

1556
01:09:31,194 --> 01:09:32,994
into it. Can we take it to the next

1557
01:09:32,994 --> 01:09:34,954
level?Can we make Oxford the place that

1558
01:09:34,954 --> 01:09:37,354
everybody else looks at it and says,

1559
01:09:37,394 --> 01:09:39,274
'This is how you do it.'

1560
01:09:39,274 --> 01:09:41,794
'We need to go and ask them

1561
01:09:41,794 --> 01:09:44,274
how they did it.' 'This is fantastic.'

1562
01:09:44,594 --> 01:09:46,074
That's what I would really like to see.

1563
01:09:46,074 --> 01:09:48,674
And if there's one point in my lecture,

1564
01:09:48,754 --> 01:09:51,074
it's that doing that will benefit every single

1565
01:09:51,074 --> 01:09:53,154
person in this University. Every single

1566
01:09:53,154 --> 01:09:54,834
person. Thank you for listening.

1567
01:09:56,751 --> 01:09:56,829
ELIZABETH FROOD: So,

1568
01:09:56,911 --> 01:09:59,791
I very much hope this is not an audition.

1569
01:10:01,711 --> 01:10:04,351
That frightens me, Sam. So

1570
01:10:04,511 --> 01:10:07,071
I'm Elizabeth Frood. I'm an associate

1571
01:10:07,071 --> 01:10:08,911
professor of Egyptology here.

1572
01:10:09,791 --> 01:10:12,751
And I feel very privileged to be in

1573
01:10:12,751 --> 01:10:15,471
this space, to thank Sam

1574
01:10:15,711 --> 01:10:18,191
for articulating such a powerful

1575
01:10:18,591 --> 01:10:21,471
call to arms for the University,

1576
01:10:22,071 --> 01:10:24,431
which placed the individual

1577
01:10:24,991 --> 01:10:27,631
body at the centre, and I

1578
01:10:27,631 --> 01:10:30,551
love that. I loved starting out with the

1579
01:10:30,551 --> 01:10:33,391
detail of the ear and just

1580
01:10:33,391 --> 01:10:36,111
moving out to how we navigate spaces.

1581
01:10:37,511 --> 01:10:39,871
And I want to thank Teresa and

1582
01:10:39,871 --> 01:10:42,751
Catherine for creating this

1583
01:10:42,751 --> 01:10:45,511
critical space for discussion, through the

1584
01:10:45,511 --> 01:10:47,711
annual Disability Lecture. I know you

1585
01:10:47,951 --> 01:10:49,711
have worked really hard to create this. I

1586
01:10:49,711 --> 01:10:51,871
thank you. Thank you both so much.

1587
01:10:53,751 --> 01:10:56,111
When I first began,

1588
01:10:58,271 --> 01:11:00,671
almost ten years - no, almost ten years ago

1589
01:11:00,671 --> 01:11:02,831
now, to have to

1590
01:11:02,831 --> 01:11:05,711
navigate the world

1591
01:11:07,391 --> 01:11:08,751
and everything,

1592
01:11:09,631 --> 01:11:12,191
literally every thing, literally things in the world, I

1593
01:11:14,271 --> 01:11:16,591
anew - I had to renegotiate my

1594
01:11:16,591 --> 01:11:19,231
relationship to the world - I

1595
01:11:19,231 --> 01:11:22,191
read a book. and maybe

1596
01:11:22,191 --> 01:11:23,951
it should be a new textbook for

1597
01:11:23,951 --> 01:11:26,871
architects , by the artist and

1598
01:11:26,871 --> 01:11:29,871
designer Sara Hendren, about

1599
01:11:29,871 --> 01:11:32,671
adaptive design and technology

1600
01:11:32,991 --> 01:11:35,951
from an artist and a designer's

1601
01:11:35,951 --> 01:11:38,151
perspective. And she

1602
01:11:38,511 --> 01:11:41,311
- it's an incredibly inspiring

1603
01:11:41,311 --> 01:11:43,711
book - and it helped me

1604
01:11:43,711 --> 01:11:46,111
rethink how my relationships with the

1605
01:11:46,111 --> 01:11:47,871
world could work, even though I'm not an

1606
01:11:47,911 --> 01:11:50,431
artist or a designer. But she

1607
01:11:50,431 --> 01:11:52,911
begins this book right at the

1608
01:11:52,911 --> 01:11:55,711
start with a quotation from a philosopher

1609
01:11:55,711 --> 01:11:57,631
Albert Camus:

1610
01:11:59,711 --> 01:12:02,431
'But one day the why

1611
01:12:02,591 --> 01:12:05,231
arises and everything

1612
01:12:05,231 --> 01:12:07,711
begins in that weariness,

1613
01:12:08,031 --> 01:12:10,031
tinged with amazement'.

1614
01:12:11,551 --> 01:12:14,511
The 'why' there for me, for me personally,

1615
01:12:14,551 --> 01:12:16,711
encompasses the 'what if':

1616
01:12:18,031 --> 01:12:20,511
what if things,

1617
01:12:21,231 --> 01:12:24,031
spaces, the world, could be

1618
01:12:24,031 --> 01:12:26,911
otherwise? And I think Sam

1619
01:12:26,911 --> 01:12:29,791
has shown us, beautifully, this evening, the

1620
01:12:29,791 --> 01:12:32,671
possibility that resides

1621
01:12:32,671 --> 01:12:35,471
in that 'why' and the

1622
01:12:35,471 --> 01:12:38,431
'what if'. There are many of

1623
01:12:38,431 --> 01:12:41,271
us in the room who will be familiar with

1624
01:12:41,271 --> 01:12:43,871
the weariness, the labour

1625
01:12:44,511 --> 01:12:46,431
that goes into navigating this world.

1626
01:12:47,711 --> 01:12:49,631
But I want to just touch a little bit,

1627
01:12:49,991 --> 01:12:52,391
because I thought Sam also brought this

1628
01:12:52,591 --> 01:12:55,151
into his lecture, the amazement,

1629
01:12:56,111 --> 01:12:58,431
in a positive way, in a delightful way,

1630
01:12:58,431 --> 01:13:01,151
because we are throwing down a gauntlet

1631
01:13:02,191 --> 01:13:04,951
to the architect, to the

1632
01:13:04,951 --> 01:13:07,631
designers, to the digital

1633
01:13:08,351 --> 01:13:10,991
world that I have to navigate to do my

1634
01:13:10,991 --> 01:13:13,791
job every day, the people

1635
01:13:13,791 --> 01:13:16,631
that create software, for

1636
01:13:16,711 --> 01:13:18,911
imaginative, creative,

1637
01:13:18,911 --> 01:13:21,871
holistic design that can

1638
01:13:21,871 --> 01:13:24,871
be really beautiful. And that the

1639
01:13:24,871 --> 01:13:27,311
aesthetic of that is so important.

1640
01:13:27,991 --> 01:13:29,511
All of you that half way through the

1641
01:13:29,511 --> 01:13:31,551
lecture started to design your meeting

1642
01:13:31,551 --> 01:13:33,631
room, I hope you were

1643
01:13:33,631 --> 01:13:36,511
creating spaces that are

1644
01:13:36,511 --> 01:13:39,471
visibly, visibly - visibility is

1645
01:13:39,511 --> 01:13:42,271
really important - audibly,

1646
01:13:42,591 --> 01:13:45,231
and sensorially useful.

1647
01:13:46,111 --> 01:13:48,991
Because it is possible. Sara

1648
01:13:48,991 --> 01:13:50,751
Hendren talks about case studies where

1649
01:13:50,751 --> 01:13:53,391
it's really possible. And yes, it has to

1650
01:13:53,391 --> 01:13:56,071
start from the ground up, and it has to be

1651
01:13:56,071 --> 01:13:58,751
a collaborative community and we are so

1652
01:13:58,831 --> 01:14:00,911
privileged in Oxford to have the

1653
01:14:00,911 --> 01:14:03,311
potential for that. So, Sam, thank you

1654
01:14:03,631 --> 01:14:06,231
so much for highlighting all of this for

1655
01:14:06,231 --> 01:14:08,751
us. I am so grateful and I'm really

1656
01:14:08,751 --> 01:14:11,071
grateful to have been here to hear that

1657
01:14:11,311 --> 01:14:13,231
and to be able to respond in this small

1658
01:14:13,231 --> 01:14:15,071
way. So I would just like to, on behalf

1659
01:14:15,071 --> 01:14:17,231
of the entire room and everyone online,

1660
01:14:17,551 --> 01:14:20,511
offer another round of thank-yous

1661
01:14:20,511 --> 01:14:22,031
and applause for Sam.