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Biography
Claudia Cockburn Flanders, OBE (11 February 1933, New York – 25 June 1998, London) was an American-British disability activist who spent much of her working life in the United Kingdom. Her parents were the journalist Claud Cockburn by his first wife, Hope Hale Davis. Davis remarried singer-songwriter Michael Flanders in 1959. Her stepmother was Jean Ross, the reported inspiration for Christopher Isherwood's iconic character Sally Bowles.
In 1987, Flanders formed Tripscope, an organisation to help disabled people with transport issues. She created the post of adviser on disability to the National Bus Company (UK) in the 1970s and served for many years on the national Joint Committee on Mobility for Disabled People and the Department of Transport Advisory Committee on Disability in the UK. Claudia Flanders was awarded an OBE in 1981 for her services to disabled people.
She died in London on 25 June 1998. Her daughters are Laura and Stephanie Flanders. In 1999 a special award for improved accessibility for UK buses operators was started in her memory under the UK Bus Awards.