2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Accessibility in construction is most often related to what we build, not how we build. Construction engineering education typically focuses on the end user rather than on the people in the industry. Indeed, most of the construction industry recognizes the need for reasonable accommodations for disabilities within health and safety practices but may fail to implement solutions onsite. Traditionally associated with physically demanding and hazardous work, the industry presents a unique challenge for workers with disabilities. But despite these challenging working conditions, many disabled workers contribute to the sector yet struggle to participate fully in all work areas. This paper reports on an audit of existing accessibility practices and conditions on several worksites within the UK. The results from this investigation are informing the inclusion of health and safety (H&S) as well as diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) topics within a new BSc Construction Management degree being launched in September 2025 at the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering (NMITE) in Hereford, UK.

This innovative approach to course development builds on NMITE’s institutional ethos of active and experiential pedagogy, industry-informed real-world challenges, and multidisciplinary team-based learning that reflects the reality of professional practice. A new higher education provider that first welcomed students in 2021, NMITE also hosts the Centre for Advanced Timber Technology, which for over two years has collaborated with industry and other organizations that embrace net-zero approaches to provide an expanding portfolio of educational programs that are essential to supporting engineers and technicians in the construction delivery transition. The BSc builds on this success, and each of its courses will be based around an industry or community-defined project. Students will also engage in a work placement as part of the degree program. The projects and placement provide an authentic context for learning around accessibility in construction to be put immediately into practice.

In showcasing results from the construction worksite accessibility audit and demonstrating how these findings are being integrated into pedagogy and course content, we attempt to address the problem that where H&S and DEI topics are included in construction education, they are often an anecdotal or ad hoc add-on to other content such as legal frameworks or regulations. What is needed is for students to discover and understand the existing practices and why they should be evaluated in response to the need for a more diverse and inclusive construction workforce. This work supports the emphases articulated in recently developed construction skills frameworks that outline the skillsets and mindsets required of the 21st century construction professional that include ethics, collaboration, and DEI. These findings can also serve as a strong motivation for industry to adopt these practices.