About the course
ENABLE Community Group amplifies voices of RIBA staff on issues around disability and neurodiversity, seeking meaningful change in the workplace and across architecture.
As the understanding of neuroscience and neurodiversity has grown, it is apparent that everyone is affected by sensory elements in the built environment. Our built environment can create sensory overload, affecting our perception, processing, movement, and response with potentially negative impacts on health, focus, productivity, and behaviour. These are all aspects that could be anticipated and improved by architects through early informed design considerations. Anxiety and stress reduction can be achieved through informed sensory design, enabling people to operate at their best.
Public body and private clients have become more focused on ensuring their properties are inclusive for all users and people have the best opportunities to thrive. There is a growing appreciation that buildings have to be accessible while delivering a degree of comfort for everyone’s physical and mental wellbeing, meeting the needs of people who experience sensory and neurological processing differences, benefits and challenges.
In the late spring of 2022, BSI is launching the first building standard for sensory and neurological needs: PAS 6463 Design for the Mind – Neurodiversity and the Built Environment. This is beneficial to all buildings’ users including people who have neurotypical, neurodivergent or neurodegenerative conditions.
In this session, leading access consultants and architects Jane Simpson and Helen Kane will provide an accessible guide for architects to neurodiversity and design. Debunking any unnecessary technical terminology in the field, they start with the why – with the brain – illustrating their talk with best practice case studies. They highlight what architects need to look out for when designing with neurodiversity in mind, flagging up the pitfalls in the design process.
A preview of the new building standard and its aims will be given by its technical author Jean Hewitt, Senior Inclusive Design Consultant at Buro Happold. An interview with Jean will include insights into the standards’ scope, timescale for implementation and key outcomes.
Enrolment options
ENABLE Community Group amplifies voices of RIBA staff on issues around disability and neurodiversity, seeking meaningful change in the workplace and across architecture.
As the understanding of neuroscience and neurodiversity has grown, it is apparent that everyone is affected by sensory elements in the built environment. Our built environment can create sensory overload, affecting our perception, processing, movement, and response with potentially negative impacts on health, focus, productivity, and behaviour. These are all aspects that could be anticipated and improved by architects through early informed design considerations. Anxiety and stress reduction can be achieved through informed sensory design, enabling people to operate at their best.
Public body and private clients have become more focused on ensuring their properties are inclusive for all users and people have the best opportunities to thrive. There is a growing appreciation that buildings have to be accessible while delivering a degree of comfort for everyone’s physical and mental wellbeing, meeting the needs of people who experience sensory and neurological processing differences, benefits and challenges.
In the late spring of 2022, BSI is launching the first building standard for sensory and neurological needs: PAS 6463 Design for the Mind – Neurodiversity and the Built Environment. This is beneficial to all buildings’ users including people who have neurotypical, neurodivergent or neurodegenerative conditions.
In this session, leading access consultants and architects Jane Simpson and Helen Kane will provide an accessible guide for architects to neurodiversity and design. Debunking any unnecessary technical terminology in the field, they start with the why – with the brain – illustrating their talk with best practice case studies. They highlight what architects need to look out for when designing with neurodiversity in mind, flagging up the pitfalls in the design process.
A preview of the new building standard and its aims will be given by its technical author Jean Hewitt, Senior Inclusive Design Consultant at Buro Happold. An interview with Jean will include insights into the standards’ scope, timescale for implementation and key outcomes.
- Enrolled Learners: 10


