Universal Design Principles Guest speaker: Colette Fransolet BIOGRAPHY With a Master’s Degree specialising in Universal Design, Colette’s working career started in the NGO sector and she quickly moved into the consulting space. Her working experience in Universal Access and Universal Design Consulting started in 2009 and with her independent company, Inclusive Design, she facilitates the development of environments, services and facilities to be inclusive to all people, with a focus on including people with disabilities, with the higher objective of changing the world for the better.
She is passionate about research, teaching and knowledge sharing on the paradigm of Universal Access, and guideline and standard development, to facilitate the broader implementation of Universal Access in various sectors. Her client list includes local and national tourism, public works and transport, universities, heritage and historical sites, museums and cultural places, large consulting and engineering companies, as well as private and business sectors.
Colette works extensively with local governments to implement universally accessible Integrated Public Transport Networks, including areas of operations, marketing and communication, customer care, vehicles, infrastructure, transport planning, fare management, skills transfer, passenger information and wayfinding. Colette’s expertise in Universal Access led her to being among the first of international applicants to receive the highest echelon of accreditation, Level 3 Advanced Accessibility Consultant for the International Certification of Professionals in Accessible Built Environments (CPABE) Program, and was subsequently invited to be a member of the Expert Panel along with other international experts in Universal Access.
Colette also currently serves on two working groups as part of SABS (South African Bureau of Standards) and she is also a welcomed annual guest lecturer on Universal Access at the University of Cape Town (UCT) for the Disability Studies Programme (MDIS) and at the Centre for Transport Studies on Non-Motorsied Transport (CIV5039Z) as well as a regular guest lecturer at the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). In 2020 Colette was invited as a knowledge expert on UA by the South African Minister of Justice and Correctional Services to serve on South African Law Reform Commission Advisory Committee to participate in the investigation of the domestication of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (UNCRPD) in South Africa.