Degrees of Inclusion

Writing and illustrating a design guide for Accommodating Children with Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools for the Department for Education

The guidance we produce is purposefully non-prescriptive.  It looks to communicate the spirit of the subject and engage the user in an exchange, hinging on their special interest and our release of control.

We arrange images and text as pretend, conglomerate examples of a possible future. These drawings form a picture of an imagined inclusive school.

The child’s tennis racquet is a design adapted from an adult tennis racquet.  Here it’s a reminder that inclusion is made possible by the whole school, the things in it and the way it is used.  The aim is to illuminate both the scope and the detailed conditions of inclusion and accessibility while showing an effective range of minimal provision.

Inclusion can be held in the hand.

SCABAL were commissioned with SENJIT by the then DfEE (now DfE) to produce design guidelines for the inclusion of children with special educational needs and disabilities in mainstream schools.  This work resulted in the publication in March 2001 of Building Bulletin 94: Inclusive School Design, HMSO, ISBN 0 11 271109 X, £19.95

The hundred-page book is lavishly illustrated with photographs showing aspects of design in school life, diagrams and drawings across a range of scales.  An overall picture of the scope and detailed conditions of an imagined inclusive school is formed by arranging school spaces, furniture and details from other guidance with case-studies in the guide.

Service: Creative Discipline

Location: UK

Client: Architects and Buildings Branch, DfE, SENJIT

Cost: £tbc

Dates: 1999

To Live In   To Learn In   To Work In   To Play In