Creating inclusive spaces for people with disabilities
04/23/2025
Despite the efforts of disability campaigners and a series of legislative changes, disabled people in the UK continue to face barriers across many areas of everyday life – whether it’s accessing services, employment opportunities, or cultural, social and leisure activities.
Government data shows the employment rate for people with disabilities is just 53% (compared to 81.6% for non-disabled people). Disabled people are also more likely to be in low-skilled jobs with fewer opportunities for career growth, and are more likely to experience anxiety and poor wellbeing.
One of the ways we can help to overcome these barriers is by making physical spaces – from offices and shops to cafes, museums, and theatres – more inclusive. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) describes inclusive spaces as those that “focus on creating environments that accommodate the diverse needs, experiences and abilities of all individuals.”
Sally Blake, UK Diversity and Inclusion Manager, Zurich, says that creating more inclusive spaces not only helps disabled people, but also brings wider societal and economic benefits.
Sally says: “Many disabled people have been in the workforce, and need support to keep working or to return to work after acquiring a disability. There’s a huge amount of untapped talent – people with huge resilience and unique experiences that allow them to empathise with customers and wider communities.
“Disabled people also have spending power – businesses and other organisations could be missing out on potential customers if their buildings and premises aren’t accessible and inclusive.”
Making spaces more inclusive doesn’t always come at a cost
There is a misconception that making spaces more accessible and inclusive will always require significant investments of both time and money. While changes may sometimes be expensive (albeit necessary) – for example, installing ramps or lifts – many of the measures discussed in the following sections are simple and cost-effective.
Helping disabled visitors prepare for their first visit
If someone has a physical, intellectual or sensory condition that could affect their ability to use or access your premises, they may need support to plan ahead for their visit.
- Use your website to explain any accessibility features you provide and any other information that will help them prepare for their visit – e.g. photographs or videos of your building’s entrance, maps showing the locations of disabled toilets, and details of any staff or volunteers who will be on hand to help.
- Sensory maps can be particularly useful for visitors with sensory differences. These show areas within a building that are typically busy or noisy, or feature bright or low light, or strong smells. Historic England’s sensory map webpage explains more and includes some examples of sensory maps.
- By registering your organisation with Euan’s Guide you can help visitors learn about your accessibility features. Euan’s Guide allows people with disabilities to search venues before they visit and leave feedback/reviews on their experience.
- Another useful service is WelcoMe, which allows disabled visitors to notify a venue of their accessibility needs before they visit. Venues signed up to the service can then offer support tailored to the needs of those individuals.
Inclusive digital spaces
Inclusivity and accessibility should also extend to your digital spaces. Sally says: “The first interaction many people will have with an organisation is via its website, so make sure your website is easy to navigate for all users, including people with disabilities.”
Tools such as Google Chrome’s Web Disability Simulator can show how different groups of people may experience your website, including individuals with Parkinson’s Disease, dyslexia, and colour blindness.
Accessibility training for staff and volunteers
The misconception that making physical spaces accessible and inclusive is expensive can also extend to staff and volunteer training.
Sally says: “The training that you provide will very much depend on your organisation and your premises, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive or time-consuming. There are a lot of free charity guides and resources that you can share with your employees. Creating or sharing short-form content, such as quick video guides or articles that people can easily understand and digest, is often better than asking them to do a lengthy online training module.
“The most important thing is that your staff and volunteers are aware of the needs of different users and how to meet those needs. For example, would they know what to do if a visitor was wearing a sunflower lanyard (this is an indicator that someone might need help with a non-visible disability)? Would they know what to do if someone had an epileptic seizure? It’s about having an awareness of the kinds of scenario you might encounter and how to respond.”
Accessibility training should also cover emergency scenarios, such as evacuation in case of a fire. If a member of staff, volunteer, or regular visitor, is unable to evacuate a building promptly and unaided in the event of an emergency, a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) should be drawn up.
A Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) is typically needed for individuals with known accessibility needs within an organisation. This includes employees and regular visitors whose needs are known and for whom a PEEP can be practically developed. However, for short-term visitors or customers whose accessibility needs may not be known in advance, it is generally not practical to create individual PEEPs. Instead, organisations should have general emergency procedures in place that can accommodate a wide range of needs and ensure the safety of all individuals, including those with disabilities, in the event of an emergency.
You can find out more about PEEPs in this article, or download a PEEP template here. There are also a number of online training providers that offer courses in drafting and implementing a PEEP.
Operations and maintenance
Finally, it’s important that the plans you put in place to make your spaces more inclusive match the reality that your staff, volunteers and guests experience.
Often, this is not the case. For example, buildings are sometimes described as accessible because there is a ramp to enter, but there may be no way for wheelchair users to access facilities on the upper floors. Or a building may have disabled toilets, but the emergency cord may be tied up out-of-reach for disabled users.
Regular checks and maintenance can help to ensure the promised experience for disabled users matches the reality. This should also extend to outdoor areas – for example, checking ramps for wheelchair users are still in good condition, and ensuring pavements, pathways and entrances are free of obstructions.
Sally concludes: “Above all, be honest and transparent. There are often good reasons why organisations can't do as much as they’d like to make their spaces inclusive, for example because of the age or heritage of a building.
“But focus on what you can do, and be upfront and honest about what you can’t. There’s nothing worse than arriving at a premises expecting one thing, and then experiencing something very different.”
