A Built Environment Accessibility Specialist based in the private sector, with over 30 years experience, Mary Ann’s passions revolve around ‘Accessibility in the Built Environment’, particularly within the urban realm. Wider professional interests include: built environment sustainability, accessible reconstruction post-disaster, and equitable housing provision; several projects have been awarded local, national and international recognition in these fields. Mary Ann has also designed and delivered many tertiary and professional education programmes, courses, intensives, seminars and workshops in architectural design, construction technology, sustainability, and built environment accessibility, as well as publishing peer-reviewed papers.
A keen internationalist, and urban scholar with UN Global Compact Cities Programme, Mary Ann endeavours to develop exchange between Asia-Pacific, Australia and Latin America within the Built Environment and Disability Studies spheres. Mary Ann’s ability to collaboratively work together with others, across multiple disciplinary boundaries, is evidenced by past and present membership of many organisations, committees, and boards.
Mary Ann is Managing Director of Visionary Design Development Pty Ltd, a transdisciplinary consultancy working across accessibility, research and architecture, and her PhD studies are further investigating ways of Assessing the Accessibility of the Existing Built Environment, focusing on the lived experience of people with disability.