Fees

Early Bird Fee: £2,095 (Finishing January 31st)
Regular Fee: £2,325 (From February 1st)

Dates

Day 1: Wednesday 5 May 2027
Day 2: Thursday 6 May 2027
Day 3: Friday 7 May 2027
9:30am – 5:00pm BST per day

Location

In person at Battersea Campus

Register your interest

Delivered by the RCA’s Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD), this executive masterclass leverages over 30 years of pioneering research in inclusive design. Having partnered with 300+ organisations across sectors, to address complex challenges, such as health, poverty, and a rapidly ageing global population, HHCD translates decades of cross-sector expertise into actionable frameworks for senior leaders.

In today’s economic climate, baseline compliance and retroactive accessibility fixes are costly and insufficient. The global disability community and their networks hold an estimated $13 trillion in disposable income, driving growing demand for inclusive solutions. Industry leaders now recognise that designing for diverse populations creates better outcomes for everyone.

Over three days, this masterclass demonstrates that designing for the margins provides a powerful lens for understanding systemic barriers and identifying opportunities for strategic innovation, business value and social impact.

Our inclusive-by-design approach will teach you to embed accessibility and inclusion at the very start of the creative process, removing potential participation barriers and significantly reducing long-term development costs. This ensures that whether you are shaping a digital banking service, housing for the elderly, an NHS protocol, or a national policy, your products and services are inclusive, desirable, ethically grounded, and accessible by default.

Whether you are a designer, manager or senior leader, this course equips you with the tools and frameworks to secure buy-in from senior stakeholders to holistically embed inclusive design within your organisation and align with the latest legislation.

About the course

What will you learn?

The HHCD’s inclusive design methodology, including proprietary tools and frameworks that place empathy and human experience at the very core of problem definition and solution ideation.
How to recognise and address exclusionary barriers at the earliest stages of design and innovation briefs.
How to address non-negotiable legal mandates.
How to move beyond basic compliance checklists to capitalise on the strategic commercial and social value of inclusive design.
How to engage directly with lead users and diverse stakeholders to gain authentic, people-centred insights about lived experience and turn them into considered innovative propositions.
How to help your organisation avoid reputational and financial risks associated with exclusionary product launches how to communicate effectively the value of inclusive design to diverse stakeholders and secure buy-in from senior leadership.

How will you learn?

Learning takes place over three days in person. Participants are taught as a group and work in small teams of 3-4 people.

You will learn through: :

Lectures / building blocks.
Case studies from the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design and state-of-the-art global practice.
Individual and group activities.
Access to the Helen Hamlyn archive and methods lab.
Course workbook including tools, templates and activities.
Resources for independent learning, e.g., journal articles, guidelines, project reports and case studies.
Feedback from the course team.

Who should attend?

The course is particularly valuable for leaders in rapidly changing sectors seeking to develop strategic innovation and business resilience.

We encourage participants from all backgrounds but this course could be particularly valuable for these types of roles:

Head of User Experience (UX)
Design Director
Chief Innovation Officer
Innovation Lead
Senior Service Designer
Systems Designer
Product Owner
Digital Product Manager
Policy & Strategy Lead
Head of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)
Principal Architect
Urban Planner
Social Impact Manager
Accessibility & Inclusion Lead
Customer Experience (CX) Strategist

Course outcomes and benefits

The outcomes and benefits to you and your organisation include:

Access to the HHCD case studies on inclusive design applications across sectors.
Diverse expertise of senior HHCD staff across ageing, health, neurodiversity, community inclusion, policy design, business and social impact.
Immersion in the new HHCD archive and methods lab.
Tried and tested methodologies, tools and design frameworks that can be directly applied within everyday work.
A springboard for strategic people-centred innovation that moves beyond baseline accessibility compliance or retrofitting.
A compelling business case for inclusive design developed through direct work with project partners across all sectors.
Cross-sector insights and peer-to-peer learning.
Networking with course delegates.
An RCA certificate of attendance.

Course structure

Day 1. Foundations of inclusive design

Introduction to inclusive design: history, definition and key principles
The business case for inclusive design
Design for an ageing population
Designing with empathy
Group workshop activities and feedback

Day 2. Designing for the diversity of human experience

Design for neurodivergence
Designing with communities
Methods Lab at the Helen Hamlyn Archive
Lead users: mapping human experience
From insights to ideation

Day 3. Strategic Innovation and impact

The value of inclusive design in a world of ‘wicked’ problems
Embedding inclusive design
Prototyping inclusive solutions
Storytelling for strategic impact
An executive pitch for inclusive design

Course admission criteria

Participants must:

have an undergraduate degree / or professional experience (design or creative background not required)
have a good level of English language
be 21 years old or over.

Accessibility:

If you have any specific requests that would enable your participation in the programme, do reach out in advance to discuss your requirements.

“In a world that is changing rapidly, organisations are increasingly looking to use inclusive design techniques to get closer to customers and communities - and to achieve real business and social impact. This Masterclass is your opportunity to develop your skills with acknowledged experts, to examine brilliant case studies, and to take your understanding of design for inclusion to the next level.”
Jeremy Myerson Professor Emeritus, Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art Founder and Contributing Editor, WORKTECH Academy Academic Director, Healthy City Design Congress
“The power of innovation and inclusive design within Northumbrian Water Group has been transformational. Innovation is now firmly part of our DNA and we look at everything we do through a customer and stakeholder lens, always seeking out opportunities to put them at the heart of our decision making which is incredibly powerful. The work we've done with the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the RCA continues to support our focus on inclusivity and our enduring relationship is a testament to the power of true partnership working.”
Jennie Collingwood Head of Corporate Affairs at Northumbrian Water Group, UK

Innovation Fellow, Inclusive Design for Business Impact

Dr Ninela Ivanova is an interdisciplinary designer, researcher, facilitator, and innovation lead.

View full profile

Senior Research Fellow

Chris is a Senior Research Fellow and Reader in Inclusive Design at the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design (HHCD), based in the Royal College of Art (RCA), where he leads the Age and Diversity research space, and the Design Age Institute’s Research Unit.

View full profile