Our People

Ability 2 Access have three outstanding Honorary Vice Presidents, a dedicated Board of Trustee Directors, supported by experienced and knowledgeable Advisers

Trevor Bottomley
Honorary Vice President

Registrar Emeritus of the University of Reading. Trevor has a son with cerebral palsy and confined to a wheelchair with little speech. He is also Honorary Secretary of Readibus, a service for people with restricted mobility.

www.readibus.co.uk

Sandie Lee
Honorary Vice President

Sandie Lee is a retired Chartered Quantity Surveyor. She has spent the last 25 years working in Academia for University College of Estate Management, a leading online University in the Property and Construction sector. Prior to joining the College Sandie gained her first degree in Quantity Surveying and a Masters’ Degree in Construction Management. She has worked in Private Practice in the traditional quantity surveyors’ role on a wide range of projects, gaining experience in dealing with clients and contractors from inception through to the completion of projects. Sandie took great pleasure in encouraging and supporting students to gain a professional qualification and further their careers. She continues to work as an External Examiner for Northumbria University and on the Accreditation Panel of the Chartered Institute of Building.

Professor Hans Haenlin MBE
Honorary Vice President

Hans Haenlein has a very well established reputation in the field of architectural and construction education and runs his own practice, which has become known for its work in the planning and design of education and community buildings. He is a leading expert in the planning of education facilities and is a visiting Professor at the University of Reading. He has advised the government and individual schools on the preparation and implementation of strategies for education facilities and the design of specialist buildings for greater inclusiveness for people with disabilities. In 1987 he was awarded the MBE for services to architecture.

Ken Carter
Trustee / Director

A highly experienced educator and entrepreneur who is active in promoting equality of opportunity, accessibility, inclusiveness and has pioneered a variety of research and development charitable enterprises such as:

Stephen Spires
Trustee / Director

Stephen did have his own extremely successful financial services company, Stephen Spires Financial Services Ltd. with 500 clients and was actively involved with investment planning, pension planning, life assurance, protection and mortgage arrangements. Some of his clients are people with a variety of disabilities and so his commitment to Ability2Access.

Andrew Harland
Trustee / Director

Andrew Harland was the Director of the International Examination Officers’ Association (iEOA) which evolved from its foundation organisation the Examination Officers’ Association (EOA) which he founded with a number of other teaching exam officers back in 2000. That lobby group transformed the EOA into a professional body to help represent the exams officer community in 2005 when it was registered as a charity and not-for-profit organisation.

Andrew continues to lobby for greater transparency and access for the SEND community, with a specific focus on the use of assistive technology. His focus is on funding applications and generating income streams for the future development of A2A within the SEND community. He continues to build on the work from the registered charity the Examination Officers’ Association (EOA), of which he was the CEO, and created the EOA back 2000 to help support the education and exams sector. He works closely with MTB Exams Ltd of which he is a non-executive Director which delivers music assessments via a mobile app which will become part of the post Covid-19 education and exams delivery strategy against unsustainable traditional systems and practices which exclude many SEND students. He is now working on the Fusion Skills initiative being promoted by the City of London which focuses on bridging the gap Skills gap being generated within the existing education/exam driven model.

Helen Lansdown
Adviser - ICT & Deafness/Disability

Chief Executive of Deafax, which pioneers the innovative use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and delivers programmes to deaf /disabled people of all ages, teachers, employers and health professionals nationally and internationally. She advises A2A on ICT within Inclusive Environments.

www.deafax.org

Riccardo Mancuso
Adviser of A2A, Trustee/Director of AACT

Since February 2916, Riccardo Mancuso has been skilfully developing and leading the implementation of a strategy to shape future business opportunities for Decibels, GOALS4LIFE (Global Online Assisted Learning & Support) & A2A. He is continuing to develop a comprehensive 5-year business plan comprising both transactional & transformational elements to ensure stakeholder buy-in and establish a robust & transparent governance model.

Riccardo has over 15 years of experience in a blue chip environment, providing a broad, strong foundation of best practice solutions to tackle operational challenges. Riccardo works with a strong sense of urgency to achieve quality results, quickly. Outside of work, Riccardo loves to explore and discover new things. His camera follows him wherever he goes and his computer boasts a decade of photos of architecture, people and cultures.