⏳ Ability 2 Access has a long history. The research group was originally established in 1993 to further research related to accessibility, based within the Department of Construction Management and Engineering at the University of Reading. It pioneered the belief that if people cannot satisfactorily use an environment because of the way it is designed and managed – the fault lays with the environment not the user.

📝 The research group published widely on building design issues for accessibility. Its research informed codes of practice, development of the Building Regulations Part M and won a Chartered Institute of Building Gold Medal for work on Colour and Contrast in 1997.

🏆 Ability2Access (formerly Inclusive Environments) was formed as an independent charitable company in November 2003, retaining close links with the University of Reading, to bring together education, practice and research in promoting design and management for accessibility. It retains the original commitment to adopting a pan-disability, multi-professional and inter-disciplinary approach to research, involving user groups and the organisations that represent them.

⭐️ Ability 2 Access entered a new era in 2012 when it moved to newly refurbished offices at the Institute of Education, University of Reading. In 2018 it moved to other offices at Earley Gate which is on another campus of the University of Reading