The development of Universal Design (UD) intends to guide the design of environments, products and communication to make environments accessible, understandable, and usable for everyone, regardless of age, size, ability, or disability.

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The aim is to achieve this through adopting 7 Principals:

1. Equitable Use

2. Flexibility in Use

3. Simple and Intuitive Use

4. Perceptible Information

5. Tolerance for Error

6. Low Physical Effort

7. Size and Space for Approach Use

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 The adoption of Universal Design within the built environment is a fantastic opportunity to enhance user experiences through designing beyond the minimum to capture a more inclusive design.

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However, it should be recognised that Universal Design is not intended to be aimed at Disability Access but rather all people.

One example may be through increasing external pathway widths to 1200mm in lieu of 1000mm to cater for passing an oncoming parents with a pram or through the adoption of fonts such as Areal typeface to offer readability to a wider customer base.    

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For more information on having your project assessed to understand potential Universal Design enhancements that could be adopted into your project, please feel free to contact us.

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