Universal Design in Majority World Contexts

Universal Design (UD) seeks to promote equality by increasing accessibility and usability within products services and systems so as to include as many categories of end-users as possible. UD can potentially impact such diverse issues as health transportation inclusive education sports and recreation entertainment social welfare inclusive employment transgenerational/lifespan housing inclusive tourism accessibility safety and ecological concerns on sustainability. UD is an emerging discipline in developing countries whose potential as a catalyst for positive social change is yet to be fully appreciated. This book thus offers a useful discussion on the various challenges and opportunities associated with efforts to mainstream UD in majority world contexts. By interrogating the efficacy of UD-thinking key actors including policy makers students practitioners researchers and educators within the diverse sub-disciplines of architecture design disability studies ergonomics/human factors engineering human-computer interaction (HCI)/usability studies and urban planning can promote greater social equity and cohesion through their design interventions.