Naziaty Mohd Yaacob

Naziaty Mohd Yaacob was born in Bentong, Pahang, 58 years ago. Naziaty Mohd Yaacob was trained in Malaysia and England as an architect. She is an Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, Universiti Malaya, where she worked since 1997. Previously she taught for 3 years at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in Skudai, Johor and had a total of 7 years experience in architecture practice. Naziaty obtained her doctorate in 2009 from the University of Salford. Her PhD thesis is titled: Accessibility to Historic and Listed Public Buildings: Development Control Processes in England and Wales. She teaches architectural design, theory and philosophy, architectural research and universal design. She has taught history of western architecture and design theory. She was the head of two research programs: Learning from the Architectural Design Studio and Grand Challenge collaboration with Kuala Lumpur City Hall entitled: Universal Design and Inclusive Society for Kuala Lumpur Built Environment. In the last two years she has conducted a Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) awarded by the Ministry of Higher Education entitled: Inclusive Landscape and Building Design using Gender Mainstreaming and Technopreneur Fund for incubating Universal Design Services and Products.

Apart from her academic role, she was a disability advocate in Malaysia since 1998. She was one of the National Council Member for the Persons With Disability Act 2008 for the first two terms, 2008-2012 and expert reference in Accessibility and Universal Design for UNESCAP in 2014 and currently is a member of the Working Group on Accessibility for Disabled Persons reviewing the Malaysian Standards MS1184 under Jabatan Standards. She was awarded a special award for her academic work at the National Day for Disabled Persons celebration in 2014. She recently received the national Labor Day award for best disabled worker in May 2018. However, her most prized award is the Teaching Excellence award 2019, that she received from University of Malaya. She was the co-chairperson for the Harapan OKU Law Reform group advocating for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities since July 2018 and retired in May 2020. In 2015, she founded ZaSve currently a pre-startup business entity under UM Innovations Sdn. Bhd. focusing on accessible transportation, home modifications, providing services on designing and conducting training courses, design appraisal and access audit, including the Tuai Residences with Suntrack Development Sdn. Bhd.. She is currently developing Version 2 of the Universal Design Bus Stop under UM Innovate, University of Malaya.