Category: What is universal design?

The classic and often quoted 7 Principles of Universal Design were devised in the 1990s. The world has moved on, but many academics and practitioners remain committed to these principles. Steinfeld and Maisel updated them in 2012 to include cultural awareness as an 8th principle. In the 2020s we need to think more broadly again. A new paper proposes safety as the 8th principle, but maybe it should be the 9th.

The 7 Principles of Universal Design were devised at a time when designers were considered responsible for creating accessible designs. Now we know the benefits of involving users in the design process as well. Of course safety should be automatically considered in all designs, but are all designs safe for everyone? A group of researchers from Ireland make the links between universal design and safety.

Now we understand diversity better, perhaps 7, 8 or 9 principles are insufficient to cover all aspects of our lives and design. The concept of universal design is much broader than just accessibility. Image is a photo taken in 2004 at Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access.

Feeling safe gives confidence

What do we mean by ‘safe’. Being safe and feeling safe are two different but related concepts. Not feeling safe can be just as limiting and exclusionary as lack of physical access. A conference paper from Ireland looks at this issue from a fear of falling perspective. Accessibility and safety don’t always go together.

Fear is a natural and essential reaction. Some people might limit or avoid activities outside the home because of the fear of falling. Others at an actual risk of falling might not consider falling as a risk. Neither condition is ideal.

The authors of the paper use examples of how design can make people feel safer. An obvious one is a handrail on a stairway. Having confidence to participate in everyday activities is good for health. Maintaining and restoring that confidence is another element of universal design.

The title of the paper is Widening the Circle: Is There an Eighth Principle for Universal Design?

From the abstract

The advantage of universal design over barrier-free design is it benefits everyone, regardless of age or ability. However design for personal safety outranks accessibility as a design The imperative to include design for personal safety even outranks accessibility as a requirement of a design.

The Seven Principles of Universal Design did not anticipate advanced standards of safety in today’s world. Whilst Principle Five – ‘Tolerance for Error’ gets close, it implies the user who is at fault not the designer. The very fear of falling, inability to find a public toilet, or feeling incapable erodes confidence.

We discuss the design of facilities that lead to lack of confidence. Fear of falling is one of the most limiting when it comes to getting out and about. We propose an additional principle: Reduction of Fear.

By joining forces with health and safety issues, universal design becomes more inclusive, desirable to client bodies, and attractive to everyone. There are areas where improvement in design is urgently required.

Architects Selwyn Goldsmith and Ronald Mace were leaders in the field of universal design. Both contracted polio in their childhood but this did not stop them from championing the disability rights movement. Today, Mace is widely recognised in the universal design movement. However, Goldsmith was very active in the UK and wrote four books. The last of which was in 2000, titled Universal Design.

Although the book is more than 20 years old, it remains a good reference for architects with some wise advice on attitude.

“The architect does not start with the presumption that people with disabilities are abnormal, are peculiar and different… [or] packaged together with a set of special-for-the-disabled accessibility standards, … presented in top down mode as add-ons to unspecified normal provision.” Image from The Guardian

Today’s universal design campaigners still find this attitude within the general design community. The resistance to that paradigm change Goldsmith discusses remains 25 years on.

From the Routledge book description

“Universal Design presents detailed design guidance for architects in an easily referenced form. Covering both public buildings and private housing, it includes informative anthropometric data, along with illustrative examples of the planning of circulation spaces, sanitary facilities, car parking spaces and seating spaces for wheelchair users in cinemas and theatres. It is a valuable manual in enhancing understanding of the basic principles of ‘universal design’.

The aim – to encourage architects to extend the parameters of normal provision, by looking to go beyond the prescribed minimum design standards of the Part M building regulation, Access and facilities for disabled people.”

The contents of the book include

• Building users: Mobility Equipment; Ambulant disabled people; Wheelchair users; Scooter users; Pushchair users;
• Anthropometric measures; Ambulant people; Wheelchair users;
• Heights of fixtures and fittings; Mirrors; Windows; Shelves; Work surfaces; Digital code panels; Socket outlets; Vertical Circulation; Steps and stairs; Ramps; Handrails; Spaces for wheelchair manoeuvre; Movement through door openings; Entrances to buildings; Entrance lobbies;
• Sanitary facilities; Cloakroom lobbies; WCs; Wash basins; Baths and bathrooms; Shower and shower rooms; Changing rooms and dressing rooms; Lifts; Platform lifts and stairlifts; Seating spaces; Kitchens; Bedrooms; Car parking spaces.

Goldsmith’s first book was in 1963 titled Designing for the Disabled – an entirely new concept at the time. He expanded this publication in 1967. A third book in 1992, Designing for the Disabled – The New Paradigm, expanded his focus to children and prams. His research led to the first kerb cuts in the UK. Selwyn Goldsmith died in 2011.

The term ‘universal design’ has its early roots in the built environment, but it is so much more now. Meaghan Walls talks in a podcast about how she came to the universal design concept. She explains how universal design is now the design of everything.

Universal design is about accepting and celebrating diversity as the graphic indicates. So, there are many ways to explain universal design. Two short videos can get you started with universal design thinking. 

This first video about universal design is powerful in its simplicity. One of the best explanations around. Great for introducing the idea of inclusion and universal design to newcomers. A good example of a universally designed video and universally designed explanation as well.

From the pixel to the city

Whether it’s a website or app, or a building or city, inclusive design principles can be applied. Inclusive Design: from the pixel to the city is a short video of designers’ comments, using animated drawings with voice overs. This adds an interesting perspective to the topic of why we need to make everything inclusive – whether its about pixels or cities. It also shows that creativity need not be curtailed in designing information formats. The article also shows how the graphics for the video were created. The video has closed captions. 

The design of everything

The term ‘universal design’ has its early roots in the built environment, but it is so much more now. Meaghan Walls talks about how she came to the universal design concept in a podcast. She explains how universal design is now the design of everything.

The podcast is one of series by The Universal Design Project.  Meaghan Walls explains how she was first introduced to the concept during her master’s degree. She came to realize that it covered more than objects;

“universal design could be applied to all aspects of our community from services to programs, to processes and businesses. And that kind of blew my mind. And I realised you could take that common thread through all aspects of our engagement with the community.”

Some nice points made in this 12 minute podcast that comes with a transcript. Walls discusses showers, invisible hinges, swing-away hinges, language, wayfinding and much more.

Inclusive design is about desirability.  Accessibility is part of it – useability for everyone. The concept of inclusive design in UK had a focus on product design, but it has moved on – evolved. A short film, Evolving Inclusive Design explains how the concept has evolved from product design to web design, to service design and then to system design.  

In the video Hua Dong emphasizes that inclusive design is important for everyone. She says: “As designers, we can design with people for people, design with disability for ability, design with old people for young people and design with diversity for unity.”

Hua Dong explains the concepts in a straightforward way in the film. In the earlier years the focus was on user capabilities. It then moved to an interactive focus and design became about the process of using things. User diversity introduces concepts of user experience. The video is 14 minutes but worth the watch. 

Although there is a particular focus on product and service design, many points can be transferred to the work with architecture.

The video is a great resource for design students and people new to the concepts. 

Inclusive design and universal design the same goals. However, there are some who would argue nuanced differences because they come from different histories. Regardless, we need to get on with the job rather than debating terminology. Besides, if universal/inclusive/design-for-all is also about diversity, we can have diverse ways of expressing the concept. The key is to design for the diversity of the population.

Universal design is understood internationally as a means of achieving an inclusive society. It is a simple idea. Why not design for the most number of people who can use a product, place, building, service or website? But is it actually that simple?

Several myths have arisen in the last 50 years since the term was coined. The term Universal Design is recognised internationally, but there are others including, Inclusive Design, Design-for-All, Human Centred Design, Accessible Design.

For easy reference here is a list of past posts and resources on universal design.

Resources for universal design

10 Things to know about Universal Design lists key benefits and dispels myths

Universal Design: Creating inclusion for everyone is a magazine article

Meet the Normals: Adventures in Universal Design, and Universally Designed Digital Life are two videos explaining the concepts well.

Whole of Victorian Government Universal Design Policy promotes universal design in public buildings. There is also a summary version. They are both in Word. 

Diversity of Explanations of UD lists some of the everyday words that can be used to help explain. UD is about diversity so why not have a diversity of explanations.

8 Goals of Universal Design express the principles in a practical way. Easily adapted to any context by using terms and language that suit.

7 Principles of Universal Design are often quoted, but not always the best explanation for people new to the topic. 

Principles of Inclusive Design by the Commission for Architecture and Built Environment (CABE) in UK. 

Hobsons Bay Universal Design Policy is a very useful example of how to devise a policy for an inclusive community. 

Digital and web accessibility have their own section on this website. 

“UD is an increasingly important feature of nation states seeking to develop a fairer society for people unable to access and use, with ease, the designed environment. It is based on the premise that the design of products and environments ought to ‘be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design’ (Mace, 1988: 1).” (From Universalising Design website which also has more information on universal design in homes.) 

The academic debate about nuanced differences between universal design and inclusive design continue. But to what purpose? Nevertheless, it is useful to know where this began and why it continues. The Inclusive Design Research Centre in Canada explains:

“We have defined Inclusive Design as: design that considers the full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age and other forms of human difference.”

Is this not the same as universal design? It all depends on your perspective and whether you care about semantics or just getting the job done.

Universal design vs inclusive design

Professor Jutta Treviranus has a particular view about the differences. She founded the Inclusive Design Research Centre in 1993 in Canada. It was previously known as the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre. The Center for Universal Design was also established in North Carolina around this time. Due to its origins in adaptive technology, the emphasis began with information and communication technology. 

The Inclusive Design Research Centre website has a page spelling out their position. In a nutshell they explain why they use the term “inclusive”:

“While Universal Design is about creating a common design that works for everyone, we have the freedom to create a design system that can adapt, morph, or stretch to address each design need presented by each individual.”

They agree that the goals are the same – inclusion. However, they say the context is different because they come from different origins. Universal design from the built environment, and inclusive design from digital technology. They also claim that universal design is about people with disabilities and that the design methods are different. That is debatable. 

Followers of universal design would no doubt take issue with phrases such as “one size fits all” and that it seeks only one solution to creating inclusion. The Center for Universal Design chose the term “universal” because they could see that all people could benefit from designs that included people with disability.

Academia continues to discuss nuances when there is so much real work to be done. We need more research on finding out why we still don’t have more inclusive/universal design in practice.

Are universal design and inclusive design rivals?

Harding, in his dense academic paper, appears to base his argument on universal design being about the “widest range of users”, whereas inclusive design is about “offering everyone access”.  He then goes on to claim that universal design is “first generation” and inclusive design is “next generation”.

Using a study of transportation in UK, Harding proposes that the “rivalry” between UD and ID hasn’t helped the cause for inclusion. The barriers to inclusion are far more complex than terminology. However, terminology is very important to academics if they want to compare their work. 

Whether you use universal or inclusive, the aim is to cater to diversity, and that includes diverse ways of explaining universal/inclusive design for an inclusive world. Most academics use the terms interchangeably and include “Design for All”.

The title of the paper is, Agent based modelling to probe inclusve transport building design in practice. John Harding is based in the UK where they have stuck by the “inclusive design” term throughout, whereas Europe has favoured Design for All, and most other countries have followed the UN Convention and use universal design. Most academics recognise the convergence of concepts rather than rivalry.

The chart below provides an overview of the relationship between inclusive design elements. However, the 8 Goals of Universal Design are probably more practical and instructive.