What is Universal Design?
I was working on an item on Universal Design and realized that I hadn’t actually defined what I was talking about. So from the man who coined the phrase: “Universal design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.” — Ron Mace, founder and program director of The Center for Universal Design Universal design has its roots in demographic, legislative, economic, and social changes among older adults and people with disabilities after World War II. Here are some general principles for the evaluation of universal design from the Center for Universal Design. These were drafted in 1997 and refer to design in the physical world, though could be applied broadly to electronic interface design. • Equitable Use The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities. • Provide the same means of use for all users: identical whenever possible; equivalent when not. • Avoid
Universal Design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design. What makes a home “universal”? It’s simple. Everyone can use universal design! It doesn’t matter if you are young or old. You could be short or tall, healthy or ill. You might have a disability. Or you may be a prize-winning athlete. Because of universal design, people who are very different can all enjoy the same home. And that home will be there for all its inhabitants even when their needs change. Here are some of the more common universal design features: • No-step entry. No one needs to use stairs to get into a universal home or into the home’s main rooms. • One-story living. Places to eat, use the bathroom and sleep are all located on one level, which is barrier-free. • Wide doorways. Doorways that are 32-36 inches wide let wheelchairs pass through. They also make it easy to move big things in and out of th
Universal design features are usually built into a home when the first blueprints or architectural plans are drawn. These features include appliances, fixtures, and floor plans that are easy for all people to use, flexible enough so that they can be adapted for special needs, sturdy and reliable, and functional with a minimum of effort and understanding of the mechanisms involved.
“Universal design” is the concept of achieving accessibility of structures, products, and services by planning for the fullest range of human function at the blueprint stage. The dual goals of universal design are (1) accessibility to the widest range of individuals and (2) elimination of the need for retrofitting and reconstruction. Some examples of universally-designed telecommunications products include televisions with closed-captioning decoder circuitry, telephones with volume control and built-in hearing aid compatibility, and public telephones which are lowered to heights accessible to people who use wheelchairs and which also feature built-in TTY keyboards.
