State of the Art

Overview

Since 1998, regional and international conferences on Universal Design have proliferated. Competitions such as the Industrial Design Society of America's 2001 competition included Universal Design as a criterion. Norway established national policy based on the principles of Universal Design. The Royal College of Art in London has hosted the Include international conference on inclusive design in 2001, 2003 and is planning a 2005 event. Japan hosted their first international Universal Design conference at the end of 2002 and plans the next in 2006. Inclusive Design/Universal Design/Design-for-All was included in the year-long celebrations in the European Year of People with Disabilities in 2003. In 2003, the International Association for Universal Design was founded in Japan and began with 120 corporate members.

Attention to and action toward Universal Design has not been limited to the developed nations though it began in nations with either a tradition of design for people with disabilities or in nations in which the demographic reality of aging generated a keen appetite for design as a support for independence. The pattern is rapidly becoming global though still scattered. Projects in Latin America are beginning to come to fruition that reflect state-of-the-art in Universal Design for public transit and urban design. In 2002, the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil had a municipal policy establishing design-for-all for this city of twenty million. They created a classic Brazilian cartoon brochure and printed 600,000 copies.

Architecture Plus, a new publication and design advocacy entity based in the Middle East and promoting "Architecture of a new world," seeks out and celebrates significant ideas and developments in architecture and design from geographical regions that cover the Middle East, Africa and Asia. From its first publication and design competition, they have integrated Universal Design as a priority.

United Nations

The United Nations has endorsed Universal Design for post-conflict redevelopment and has integrated it in the rebuilding of Beirut and Kosovo. Some of the foundational policy documents of the UN in the last decade state a commitment to inclusive design. They include the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development (1995) that uses the term "people-centred sustainable development." The Madrid International Plan of Action of Ageing (2002) in Priority Direction III calls for "ensuring enabling and supportive environments" and specifically notes the inclusion of homes, cities, public transit and information and communication technology.

UD in Information & Communication Technology

Attention to the potential of Universal Design in Information and Communication Technology has grown exponentially as an area with the dramatic potential to open doors to education, work and civic engagement across differences in ability and age but also increasingly across economic and social categories. Digital and multi-sensory information that can be easily tailored to individual needs and preferences can bypass the problems of limited access to books, of limited literacy and of inability to manipulate or see text. There is increasing discussion about minimum global standards in technology, including web accessibility and digital text. That would establish a predictable base of performance for a majority of users and a guarantee of compatibility with assistive technology for those that need additional features.

Dialogue between Developed & Developing Nations

It is important to create opportunities for international dialogue that explore needs in the developing and least developed nations. Best practices in Universal Design are still concentrated in the developed nations. There is some opportunity for replication and transferability but there is an urgent need to create ways to share information about policies, practices and specific examples that demonstrate practical strategies within and between developing nations. Exchanging stories, model polices, sample products and case studies could expedite the practice of Universal Design where growth and development are concentrated now and for the rest of this century.

Universal Design is at a stage of evolution in which the appetite for information is exceeding capacity. Web-based resources partially address the need. Face to face opportunities to generate collaborations are also catalysts to rapid progress. To date, international conferences have been primarily more accurately called events for people from the most affluent societies in the world. That's changing. There was a regional event in Brazil in 2004 and, in December of 2004, the Institute for Human Centered Design, a US-based international NGO, hosted with partner, CVI-RIO (Centro de Vida Independente do Rio de Janeiro), and with co-sponsors including the U.N. Global Programme on Disability, and fifty collaborating organizations, hosted Designing for the 21st Century III, An International Conference on Universal Design. in Rio de Janeiro. The theme of international dialogue between developed and developing nations shaped that event. Participants included people from 32 nations. The mission of that event has been adopted by the UN's International Federation on Ageing for three triennial international conferences which begin in May of 2008 in Montreal. The goal is to stimulate communication between people across disparate economic and social experience and to infuse an inclusive design framework into policies on social sustainability.

1. Building bridges between the developed and majority or 'developing' societies on Universal Design including designers, people with disabilities, elders, business, media and government,
2. Integrating Universal Design into sustainable development.

Conclusion

Design is only one part of the solution to a more inclusive world in which all people have equal opportunity for independence, autonomy and participation. But design matters. Understood as the work of 'changing existing situations into preferred ones' [Simon, 1967], and expanded to embrace solutions that include everyone, Universal Design is a framework that accepts diversity of ability and age as the most ordinary reality of being human and evaluates strategies and solutions based on how well they meet the needs of the widest possible group of potential users and enhance everyone's experience. It demands a quality of creativity and invention that can energize generations of designers to become partners with users in a revitalized appreciation of design as intrinsic to social sustainability.