Stunning Amtico
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010At Design Matters we love Amtico flooring. Why? Because it’s practical, hardwearing and also very beautiful. Amtico is much warmer underfoot than ceramic tiles and easier to clean and maintain than carpets.
Amtico offers a fabulous range of colours and textures for all rooms in the house, and in our opinion it is a vastly superior product to most of its direct competitors. The range includes some very successful natural stone and wood effects that are hard to tell from the real thing.
With its thick stain-resistant wear layer an Amtico floor shrugs off dust and dirt, and makes cleaning quick and easy. A quick sweep with a dry microfibre mop is all that’s required on a day to day basis.
Amtico floors come with a 20 year warranty against normal household use when fitted by a qualified Amtico installer. If you have a busy household with children, frequent visitors or pets, Amtico flooring will keep its good looks for longer than most other floor coverings and as a premium product it will add value to your home.
If you are on a budget you might want to consider looking at the Spacia flooring range. Spacia is from the same people as Amtico and boasts a very wide choice of colours and finishes, the only difference being a less generous wear layer. Spacia floors come with a 15 year warranty against normal household use when fitted by a qualified Amtico installer.
Call us on the office number for a copy of the latest Amtico or Spacia brochures, or visit our showroom to see Amtico flooring on display.
Miele G5000 Dishwasher Offer
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
From 14 June to 26 July 2010 Miele are offering a 24 piece Alessi cutlery set worth £150 to customers purchasing selected G5000 dishwashers.
The set includes six place settings comprising knife, fork, dessert spoon and teaspoon in polished steel, and includes vouchers giving 15% off further Alessi purchases, and 20% discount off new Miele dishwasher tablets.
This offer applies to the following appliances:
Freestanding: G 5100 SC, G5500 SC wh, G 5500 SC clst, G 5720 SC
Semi-Integrated: G 5725 SCi XXL, G 5935 SCi XXL
Fully Integrated: G 5575 SCVi XXL, G5885 SCVi XXL, G 5985 SCVi XXL
To apply for this fabulous offer, contact the Design Matters office for a claim form.
Training Dates for 2011 Now Released
Tuesday, May 18th, 2010With only a few remaining training dates available for 2010, we are working on our training schedule for 2011. Design Matters training can be accessed either via the Disabled Living Foundation in London, which runs our courses every year, or we can bring a trainer and assistant to a venue of your choice across England and Wales.
Our one-day training course entitled ‘The Basic Principles of Accessible Kitchen Design’ is aimed primarily at Occupational Therapists, as it assumes a certain level of understanding of various impairments requiring kitchen adaptation. However Case Managers, Architects and Personal Injury Solicitors might also be interested in becoming better acquainted with the issues surrounding kitchen design for their clients who are pursuing compensation claims to improve their independence and quality of life.
Adam Thomas is an acknowledged expert in the field of inclusive kitchen design and has many hundreds of successful designs to his credit for olderpeople, wheelchair users and people with a variety of conditions such as muscular dystrophy, muscular sclerosis, post-polio syndrome, acquired brain injury, arthritis, dementia and restricted growth. His ethos is simple: Kitchens can be fully accessible and attractive, and can be designed to last a lifetime. Find out more about the growing field of inclusive design, the fundamentals of accessible kitchen design, and the latest products and design techniques on our intensive one-day course.
We supply a lead trainer and assistant, and all training materials. You supply a maximum of 20 delegates, refreshments and a training venue. An extensive case study is included to bring the theory to life. New for 2011: Case study can be varied according to your training requirements.
Fees vary depending on the distance of the training venue from our headquarters in South Bucks. Contact Natalie Foskett our training coordinator for more information.
Design Matters at Naidex 2010
Wednesday, March 10th, 2010We are delighted to announce that the Design Matters team will be at Naidex 2010, from 20-22 April at the NEC, Birmingham. Always an exciting show, Naidex is the premier exhibition for accessible products in the UK, and we are delighted to be attending for the third year in a row.
With a stunning fully featured kitchen display on stand G106, and the opportunity to book an appointment with Adam Thomas our award-winning accessible kitchen designer, Naidex 2010 is the place to be if you are looking for kitchen inspiration.
Our Naidex display kitchen will feature an exciting new colour scheme for 2010, and a wide range of products and storage ideas for you to try out. Don’t forget to pick up a copy of our brochure while you are visiting the stand and chat to our helpful staff who are there to answer all your questions. There will be plenty to see and experience if you are looking for kitchen ideas.
If you would like to meet with Adam, please pre-book your time slot by calling us on the office number. There are a limited number of meeting slots available each day, so don’t delay in contacting us. Please bring along a rough sketch, or plans of your new kitchen space to make the best use of this unique opportunity.
Calling all OTs and health professionals! Adam will be speaking twice during the official Naidex seminar programme on accessible kitchen design. There is no need to book in advance for these sessions, just turn up on the day: April 21st at 1130h and April 22nd at 1330h.
Registering to attend Naidex is simple, just visit www.naidex.co.uk and click on Register Now to pre-register for quick and easy entrance on the day of your choice. We look forward to seeing you there!
Language Please!
Sunday, January 3rd, 2010It is a curious thing when language provokes a very strong reaction in sectors of the public at large, and when those who aren’t ‘in the know’ struggle to understand the source of the problem.
In these politically correct days it’s common enough for us to watch our ‘p’s and q’s’ when it comes to discussions on race and religion, however use of language around disabled people and disability is still not widely discussed or understood even when it sparks just as much unhappiness and frustration. I spoke with Adam Thomas of Design Matters, an expert in accessible kitchen design in the UK, about this thorny issue.
I began by asking Adam why this issue is so close to his heart.
“Well, I’ve been a wheelchair user for nearly thirty years now, and I’ve worked hard throughout this time to promote disability equality. It’s hard to accept that thirty years on, with the Disability Discrimation Act in place, and moves to improve equality in the workplace and out on the streets that the changes haven’t filtered through yet to the language surrounding disability and disabled people.”
So this is personal?
“Yes, it’s personal. I take care with my language. I respect the wishes of others to been seen as a person first, and not just a race or religion. I don’t know why this same courtesy isn’t given to disabled people. We are just people, who happen to use some extra technology to get around, or use a computer. It’s the same as wearing glasses or using the car to get around more quickly.”
“There’s a much-used phrase: ‘See the person, not the disability’. Many non-disabled people I meet want to talk immediately about my wheelchair instead of me. That’s like asking about someone’s glasses as soon as you meet them, instead of chatting to the person. It’s exactly the same thing. I’m a person first, who happens to use a wheelchair to get around. You are a person who happens to use glasses to see better. As I said, it’s exactly the same thing.”
And you find some very strange use of language in your working life?
“Yes, I design kitchens for disabled people, and because I am disabled myself I’ve had to train my non-disabled colleagues at work to use the right language in speaking to my clients.”
“We don’t call our kitchens ‘disabled kitchens’, for example. A kitchen cannot be disabled! Another common one is ‘disability kitchens’, which makes no sense at all. Kitchens are kitchens. Some are adapted to make them more accessible, and this means they work better for everyone, not just disabled people.”
“We call our kitchens ‘accessible kitchens’, which means they are designed so that our clients can reach just about every cupboard and worksurface. It’s a very specialised field, and we take great pride in doing a good job, and using language that will not alienate or discourage people.”
“Some of my clients are older people, who have impaired grip and reach. They may not consider themselves disabled, so an ‘accessible kitchen’ fits the bill. Other clients have a progressive condition such as Muscular Dystrophy or Multiple Sclerosis which means they need as much flexibility as possible in future years. Here again an accessible kitchen means they will be able to remain independent and enjoy a good quality of life for longer.”
And you design kitchens for disabled people too?
“Of course, I’ve designed hundreds of kitchens for disabled people, but they’re all individuals so each kitchen is different. Apart from the furniture, most of the appliances we use are standard models that have some good accessible features. We use the same ovens and hobs in our standard and accessible kitchens.”
So what will it take for things to change for good?
“I suppose more articles like this. The web will allow editorial comment to hang around for longer, so exposing the problem in this way is sure to have an effect eventually. I just wish there was more general debate on this subject. There are 10 million disabled people in the UK, so we’re not talking about a minority group here.”
As I take my leave of Adam I ponder the challenge. Disability equality, it’s not such a big ask, is it?