Access and the project manager — regulation or education?

Abstract

The project manager's role in ensuring proper facilities for disabled people in buildings raises some important professional issues concerning training and attitudes. Three areas of building work are identified by type of client: public works, work for private clients and speculative development works. For each of these areas, attitudes of commissioning clients are examined, and the roles of both project management and regulation in ensuring access provisions are considered. A need for the training of project managers in wider aspects of project provision is suggested, as is the need to consider professionalism and a code of professional ethics. The role of the Association of Project Managers as a professional body, in encouraging training and ethics, is emphasized.