Promoting disability equality and inclusive learning in planning education

Abstract

In the UK, the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 created a positive duty on the public sector to promote disability equality. This duty extends to higher education and local planning authorities. Based on Zuber‐Skerrit's CRASP model for professional development, this paper examines an initiative to enact the duty. It details a completed action research project with undergraduate students and an adult learning project, that works with adults labeled as ‘learning disabled’. The paper considers how this co‐educational learning experience enabled the undergraduate students to engage with the principles of inclusive design in the built environment and offers a model for how inclusive policy and practice may be implemented at the university level, and particularly in built environment courses.

Keywords:

• action research
• inclusive design
• higher education
• learning disabled
• disability equality
• co‐educational
• built environment