Adult learning enhances, sometimes changes lives. It is therefore vital that educators do whatever it takes to enable more people from under-represented groups to get involved in learning. This is central to the Workers' Educational Association's (WEA) vision and values. Yet among its range of programmes, some subject areas remain the preserve of a relatively well-educated, predominantly white student population. Archaeology is one of these, with people with physical disabilities and learning difficulties as well as declared ethnic minorities under-represented compared with overall provision. With funding from the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), the WEA delivered a pilot project which used practical archaeology to overcome exclusion. This project indicated clearly that prevailing assumptions about participation in archaeology could and should be challenged by raising awareness within the archaeology community about what people of all abilities can contribute, and within disabled communities and those who work to support them.