Abstract
Universal design is a term that was first used in the United States by Ron Mace (1985) although forms of it were quite prevalent in Europe long before. For the purpose of this chapter Universal Design is defined as ’the design of all products and environments to be usable by people of all ages and abilities to the greatest extent possible (Story, 2001, p. 10.3). Universal design in recent years has assumed growing importance as a new paradigm that aims at a holistic approach ranging in scale from product design (Balaram, 2001) to architecture (Mace, 1985), and urban design (Steinfield, 2001) on one hand and systems of media (Goldberg, 2001) and information technology (Brewer, 2001) on the other.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Balaram S (2001) Universal Design and the Majority world. In: Universal Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill
Brewer J (2001) Access to the World Wide Web: Technical policy and perspectives. In: Universal Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill
Calkins M, Sanford JA, Proffitt MA (2001) Design for Dementia: Challenges and Lessons for Universal Design. In: Universal Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill
Goldberg L (2001) Universal design in film and media. In: Universal Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill
Habermas J (1972) A postscript to knowledge and human interests. In: Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Beacon Press, Boston
Hurlemann M (2001) The Care Apartment Concept in Switzerland. In: Universal Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill
Lawton P (2001) Designing by degree: Assessing and Incorporating Individual Accessibility needs. In: Universal Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill
Mace R (1985) Universal Design, Barrier free environments for everyone. Designers West, Los Angeles, CA
Manley S (2001) Creating an Accessible Public Realm. In: Universal Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill
Mullick A, Steinfield E (1997) Universal Design: What it is and what it isn’t. Innovation, the Quarterly Journal of the Industrial Designer Society of America, 16(1): 14-24
Newman (1997) The meanings of methodology. In: Social Research methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, Third edition, Allyn and Bacon, Boston, pp 73-84
Ostroff E (2001) Universal Design as practiced in the United States. In: Universal Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill
Preiser WFE, Ostroff E (eds.) (2001) Universal Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill
Preiser WFE (2001) Towards Universal Design evaluation. In: Universal Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill
Ramot A (2001) Israel: A Country on the Way to Universal Design. In: Universal Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill
Sandhu J (2001) An Integrated Approach to Universal design: Towards Inclusion of all ages, Cultures and Diversity. In: Universal Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill
Steinfield E (2001) Universal Design in Mass transportation. In: Universal Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill
Story MF (2001) Principles of Universal Design. In: Universal Design Handbook, McGraw- Hill
Takahashi G (2001) From Accessibility for Disabled People to Universal Design: Challenges in Japan. In: Universal Design Handbook, McGraw-Hill
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer-Verlag London
About this paper
Cite this paper
D’souza, N. (2004). Is Universal Design a Critical Theory?. In: Keates, S., Clarkson, J., Langdon, P., Robinson, P. (eds) Designing a More Inclusive World. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-372-5_1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-372-5_1
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-1046-0
Online ISBN: 978-0-85729-372-5
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive