Has BEPE – the Built Environment Professional Education Project – been Effective at Changing Inclusive Design Education in the UK?

The Government’s Paralympic Legacy Project - the Built Environment Professional Education Project - nudged the key built environment professional institutions into a journey that is starting to change how inclusive design is taught to built environment students. Many institutions, including the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Royal Town Planning Institute, the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, the Landscape Institute and the Chartered Institute of Building are now embedding inclusive design into their professional standards, into their accreditation criteria and into their CPD programmes. An increasing number of higher education institutions are now developing new inclusive design courses and programmes and many new buildings have delivered high standards of accessibility and inclusion. Are these examples still few and far between or is inclusion now business as usual in the UK? This paper looks at the impact the BEPE Project is having and asks is this enough to change our attitude towards delivering more accessible and inclusive buildings, places and spaces or will disabled people continue to face the same challenges in accessing homes, jobs and services in the future