New guide to creating an accessible and inclusive built environment ⁰

The Construction Industry Council has published a new guide to creating an accessible and inclusive environment.  The guide sets out six principles as suggested by the Office for Disability Issues to ‘guide, support and motivate’ industry professionals. The guide is an initiative that emerged from the Built Environment Professional Education Project – a government project that has been championed by CIC. The aim is to build on the legacy of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games by helping to generate a change in the way skills related to inclusive design are taught in the UK. The aim is that all built environment professionals will receive mandatory, quality teaching about inclusive design so that they can help create inclusive building, places and spaces for future generations.

The six principles set out in the guide are:

• Contribute to building an inclusive society now and in the future
• Apply professional and responsible judgement and take a leadership role
• Apply and integrate the principles of inclusive design from the outset of a project
• Do more than just comply with legislation and codes
• Seek multiple views to solve accessibility and inclusivity challenges
• Acquire the skills, knowledge, understanding and confidence to make inclusion the norm not the exception

BEPE Project Board Chair Paul Morrell said of the guide, “As we contemplate the many possible futures of the industry, a good question to ask is, what would an industry that we can be proud of look like? How would it behave? And what regard would it have for those it works for, and those who work for it?  Just one answer to that question is that it would always have in its mind the whole idea of accessibility: of welcoming the greatest possible number of people, in all the many guises we come in, into our buildings and our businesses, and designing into both whatever accommodations may be necessary to make them feel at home. To do that, all we have to do is first to care; then to know what to do; and then just do it. These are challenges of attitude, academics and action, and rising to all of those challenges would be to achieve real BuildAbility.’’