Home

Everything you need to know about universal design

Welcome to Centre for Universal Design Australia. You’ve come to the right place to find information about universal design and inclusive practice.

A crowd of lots of different coloured heads.

Universal design is about creating an inclusive society. It is not a type of product – it is a design thinking process. That means it can be applied to anything and everything that is designed in our world.

One way of introducing designers and others to universal design concepts is through the 8 Goals of Universal Design. Briefly, they are:

  1. Body fit
  2. Comfort
  3. Awareness
  4. Understanding
  5. Wellness
  6. Social integration
  7. Personalization
  8. Cultural appropriateness 

What is universal design?

Other names for universal design are: inclusive design, design-for-all, human centred design, design for diversity, and user centred design. While some might argue there are differences, they all aim for the same thing – an inclusive world.

What’s good about an inclusive world? It benefits everyone. Being able to participate in everyday activities is good for our health and wellbeing. Our health and sense of wellbeing is affected by being excluded because of barriers, difficulties and inconveniences.

For quick reference, we have a one-page plain language summary of universal design you can download.

Discover more…

Because universal design covers so many things, we have separate sections for different topics. There is a search box at the bottom of the left hand menu to help you find what you are looking for. Or you can select the menu tabs. 

Find out more about us. You can support our work by becoming a member. Meanwhile, you can subscribe to our regular newsletter of new posts, by using the box on the left hand menu bar. 

Accessibility. There is an accessibility icon at the top left-hand side of the page. You can increase font size and text contrasts by clicking on the icon to see the drop down menu.
Contact us  using the contact form, or email udaustralia@gmail.com.  
Privacy. We store your contact data on this site’s WordPress database. You can read our Privacy Policy on how we protect your personal data.
       
Official charity status logo for Centre for Universal Design Australia.Centre for Universal Design Australia is a registered charity and donations are tax deductible. You can donate by credit card using the PayPal gateway in the button below. Your details will be sent to CUDA and we will acknowledge with a receipt. 

 
You can also donate using your bank EFT.

The bank account details are:

  • Account Name: Centre for Universal Design Australia Ltd
  • BSB 633-000
  • Account Number: 157441700

If using this method, please email udaustralia@gmail.com with your name, address and email.

Accessibility Toolbar