What does an access consultant do on a special-use project?

An access consultant assesses whether a building can be used by people with disability, measured against the requirements that apply to it. The work is part design review and part compliance, and it is most useful while the design can still change.

Our co-founder is an ACAA Accredited Access Consultant, an NDIS Accredited SDA Assessor, an LHA and NCC Assessor and a Changing Places Assessor. That expertise sits inside the business, and it is part of the design from the first stage.

What the role covers

An access consultant reviews drawings and specifications and assesses the access provisions in them: paths of travel, door widths and circulation space, ramps and thresholds, sanitary facilities, signage and controls. Where the design falls short, they recommend what has to change and why.

On site, they can assess the work as built, because a door hung on the wrong side or a threshold set a few millimetres high can undo a compliant drawing.

The requirements in play

Which requirements apply depends on the building and its use.

The accessibility provisions of the National Construction Code apply to many building classes and call up AS 1428.1, the Australian Standard for design for access and mobility. The Disability (Access to Premises - Buildings) Standards 2010 apply to public buildings and some shared accommodation. Livable housing design sets out baseline accessible features for dwellings, explained in [Livable Housing design levels](/blog/livable-housing-design-levels).

For Specialist Disability Accommodation, the NDIS SDA Design Standard applies on top of all of these. Its categories and requirements are set out in [the NDIS SDA Design Standard explained](/blog/ndis-sda-design-standard-explained).

Access consultant and SDA assessor

The two roles overlap but they are not the same. An access consultant assesses against building code and standards requirements. An SDA assessor is accredited to assess a design, and later the completed dwelling, against the SDA Design Standard.

The SDA assessment produces the certification an enrolment rests on, which is why it is covered in [how is an SDA dwelling enrolled](/blog/how-is-an-sda-dwelling-enrolled). One person can hold both accreditations, which removes a handover between two reviewers.

When it should happen

Access assessed only at the end finds problems when they are most expensive to fix. A corridor that is too narrow or a bathroom without the clear floor space it needs is a redesign once documentation is complete, and a rebuild once a module is fabricated.

The same logic reaches into the factory. Once a module's bathroom is tiled and its joinery fitted, the clear floor space and fixture positions are fixed, so they are checked against the assessed design before the module leaves.

In our design programme, assessment is threaded through the stages. The schematic is measured against compliance and accessibility at design assessment. SDA assessment runs alongside draft development, and SDA review confirms accessibility holds through draft coordination, so the coordinated design reaches submission with access already resolved.

Why the detail matters

Accessibility is a field where small numbers decide the outcome. A few millimetres at a threshold, a reach range set slightly too high, or a turning space shortened by a door swing each change whether a resident can use the space on their own.

That calls for a pedantic level of attention to detail, applied at every stage. For a resident, the result is a home they can move through without help, which is the whole purpose of the work.

MADEmodular / MADEbetter.

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