This summer, several architecture institutions provided workshops and summer intensives for prospective students and adults looking to immerse themselves in an architecture and design environment. The Bartlett School of Architecture's Architecture Beyond Sight program provides an excellent opportunity for designers to allow inclusivity to exist at the forefront during the design process.

Initiated by Bartlett's faculty of the Built Environment dean Alan Penn in collaboration with architect and researcher Carlos Mourão Pereira, the program challenges the conventional approach of designing with sight. 

Architecture Beyond Sight is an engaging summer workshop that challenges "architecture's obsession with visual fixation" Dean Penn shares on the Bartlett school site. During week-long workshop participants are presented with an "alternative to architecture's visual bias, by working with blind and partially sighted people to rethink design and representational methods, and creating built spaces that respond to all the senses." 

Inclusivity in design is an ongoing topic that should be seen as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. For the program, architects like Pereira, San Francisco-based architect Chris Downey, and The DisOrdinary Architecture project have designed courses and programs for the blind and visually impaired that make design accessible to a larger group of people than is regularly the case. 

The design profession might largely fail to address the design difficulties those with disabilities face, however, initiatives and programs like Architecture Beyond Sight can help support a new wave of architects and designers by empowering their own life experiences and creating a more inclusive environment.