DESIGN
The essence of universal design lies in its ability to create beauty and mediate extremes without destroying differences in places, experiences, and things. - Bill Stumpf & Don Chadwick
The Importance of Universal Design
Universal Design Principles and Goals give us the tools that we need to design environments that can truly be inclusive to every visitor.
In the United States we have the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) that provides the legal standards that all community space needs to have to be accessible to all, but these standards often fall short of meeting the subtle needs of people with a wide variety of people in our communities.
At minimum, design in the United States must meet ADA guidelines.
ADA Web Resources
Universal design provides us with concepts that allow us to design with everyone in the community in mind. These are principles and goals that are used around the world to guide design to make it inclusive to all.
There are many organizations out in the world that embrace universal design for assorted reasons. These are organizations that I go back to again and again when looking at how to use universal design in what I do every day.
Deanna’s Playhouse, Holland, MI
Some Universal Design Web Resources
Recently I had the chance to work with a team in Canada on an Inclusive Playground Playbook. This project explored inclusive playground design from around the world and pulled it together in one resource.
You can download the
Creating Inclusive Playground: A Playbook of Consideration and Strategies for free (in English or French) below.
In the Library
These are resources I go back to again and again around the topic of UNIVERSAL DESIGN!
Design and Disability
Design Meets Disability
(Pullin)
Demystifying Disability
(Ladau)
Human Factors
Universal Design
Universal Design: Creating Inclusive Environments
(Steinfeld & Maisel)
Universal Design Handbook
(Presider & Ostroff)
Inclusive Design: A Universal Need
(Nussbaumer)
Universal Principles of Design
(Lindwell, Holden, & Butler)
Innovating with People: Inclusive Design and Architecture
(Eikhaug, et all)
Universal Design in Outdoor Spaces
Play for All Guidelines: Planning, Design, and Management of Outdoor Play Settings for All Children
(Moore, Goltsman, & Lacofano)
Therapeutic Gardens: Design for Healing Spaces
(Winterbottom & Wagenfled)
Universal Design in Education Environments
Universal Design for Learning
Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice
(Meyer, Rose, & Gordon)
Equity by Design: Delivering on the Power and Promise of UDL
(Chardin & Novak)