General Notes on Training Document - Reply

William wrote:
> From 20,000 feet I would urge that a couple of points be made
in any/all(?) training sessions...retrofitting is beyond being a
nuisance; 

Sometimes I find I need to put a different spin on retrofitting.

For example.  A blind person approaches me because they
can't use a particular site.  I approach the designer who is
sympathetic, but tells me that their new design isn't scheduled
for a further 18 months, at which time the site will be made
accessible.  My customer doesn't have 18 months to wait
around - so I ask the designers to do a bit of short-term
retrofitting.  

To persuade him/her to do this, I need to make
retrofitting seem straight-forward and achievable ("honestly, this
will only take you 10 minutes", etc.), while at the same time
saying 'of course, if you do this right from the start...'.

Somehow, I think we need to train designers to understand the
benefits of universal design from the outset, while still seeing the
worth in retrofitting as a short-term solution.
Julie, RNIB, UK