Mary Noble, Access Consultant

Owner of Noble Access

Biography

Mary originally established her own accessibility consultancy practice in 2003.

Though her consultancy practice, Mary has advised an extensive range of client types on accessibility for disabled people through undertaking access audits, access appraisals and formulating access plans and strategies.

Her previous clients include: schools, community colleges, casinos, museums, police training centers, places of worship, theatres, heritage and tourist sites, libraries, restaurants, retail premises, franchise chains, transport infrastructure, rural amenities, pathways/trails and business and factory premises and city departments.

Mary practiced as a Senior Construction Estimator and Quantity Surveyor prior to her career in inclusion.

In 1999, she joined the Centre for Accessible Environments (a centre of excellence on accessibility and a pioneering organisation) as Register Manager for the National Register of Access Consultants (NRAC).

As the Register Manager she was responsible for establishing and managing the NRAC, the first accreditation body for access professionals in the world. Mary’s organisational and managerial skills took the NRAC from a fledgling government-funded proposal to an established accreditation body.

Her portfolio included undertaking access audits and providing consultancy advice and training on all aspects of accessibility as a Consultant Member of the National Register of Access Consultants.

Speaker on Accessibility

At numerous forums including:

Inclusion by Design (International conference) – Montreal, Canada
Designing for the 21st Century ll (International conference) Providence, Rhode Island USA
The All Party Disablement Group, Houses of Parliament London, England
Young Core Leaders of Civil Society Program (Participant and Speaker)
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors AGM at the British Foundation, London
Access Association AGM
National Register of Access Consultants AGM

Qualifications

2024 LLM Master of Laws in Professional Legal Practice, Pass with Distinction

2021 Graduate Diploma in Law

2002 Accredited Access Consultant (National Register of Access Consultants)

1999 Introduction to British Sign Language (Morley College)

1997 MSc Management in Construction with Law, Pass with Distinction (Kingston University)

1993 BSc Quantity Surveying (Kingston University)

Lecturing and Tutoring Experience

During her career in the field of Barrier-Free Design, Mary has participated as External tutor and examiner for:

MSc in Inclusive Design (Salford University)

Postgraduate Certificate in Accessible Environments (University of Portsmouth)

(Part- time roles providing lectures, seminars and assessment of students)

She has devised and delivered in-house and scheduled training sessions and seminars for businiesses, city employees, community groups, voluntary organizations, professional bodies and practices.

Publications and Articles

Co-authored 'Making Schools Accessible - Access Resource Pack' for Surrey County Council - disseminated throughout >400 schools. In excess of 1200 further copies were sold to over 30 UK Education Authorities.

Authored of numerous published articles on Accessibility and legislation for a diverse range of publications including: Access by Design, Building News, Access Journal, Club Manager, Builder and Engineer, Facilities Management Today, ID:Interior Designer, Chartered Surveyor Monthly, Building Engineer and Occupational Therapy News.

Editor of Access by Design, the leading journal in the access field.

Produced standard texts for use by access professionals such as BS8300:2001/Designing for Accessibility comparison document and the Standard terms and conditions for the engagement of an access auditor or consultant

Accessibility Steering group participation
Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors
Royal Institute of British Architects
Howard League for Penal Reform Disability forum
Metropolitan Police DDA Advisory Group
Project Crystal Research Project (University of Reading)
National Register of Access Consultants
Disability Rights Commission (UK)