Recently, I am attending the changing population module. In this module, I have learned that universal design is developed from accessibility. Also, I have learned Inclusive design which is the design of products or services that are usable by as many people as possible. These specific products or services have their target users. Identifying the differences between these concepts is important, which teaches me how to use methodologies to solve practical problems. In this journal, I will mainly discuss the difference between universal design, inclusive design and accessibility.
To give a coherent explanation of universal design, inclusive design and accessibility, I should recap the development of the population. People are living longer today because of a healthy lifestyle, medicine and sanitation, but there were an increasing number of the ageing population and disabled people (Universal design history, no date). This situation aroused awareness of inequities in access to public places and products for the elderly and disabled. The US government began to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Architectural Barriers Act. Accessibility primarily addresses the need of disabled people and remove the barrier to accessing the buildings.
However, the disadvantage of those accessible designs and “customized designs” are expensive and inaesthetic. The worst thing was that people unconsciously reinforce the bias of disability. The concept of Universal design was created to solve this problem. The universal design definition is ‘‘The design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design’’ (Persson et al., 2014). Universal design broadens the scope of functionality of the design and breaks the boundary of the type of people. It is designed for all users. I quickly realized that universal design is around the place where I live. The design of pedestrians is not for the wheelchair but also for cyclists.
Inclusive design is similar to universal design to some extent as they do not solely focus on disability but on diverse groups (Persson et al., 2014). Nevertheless, inclusive design has its root in product design and mainly serve the target market users (Inclusive Design Toolkit, no date). The concept of inclusive design is applied to the mobile phone industry and helps the company win a huge market share. For example, Transsion, a manufacturer of mobile phones, designed AI cameras to better capture dark-skinner users. They introduced “the beauty of blackness” to their consumers.
In conclusion, universal design is designed for all, while inclusive design emphasizes the segmented user market. Accessibility mainly focuses on disability.
Reflection
At the beginning of these lectures, I try to recall what I learned in my undergraduate and the keywords that come to my mind are elder people, accessible and wheelchairs. After the lectures, I found difficulty in distinguishing between universal design, inclusive and accessibility. Besides, both lectures talked about ageing and disability which were mentioned frequently so I just formed a stereotype in my mind. Are these three terms the same concept?
I felt confused with the definitions because universal design, inclusive design and accessibility are all related to disability and the three concepts may have historical relevance and I did not understand the development history of these concepts.
I think the reason I confused these 3 definitions is that I didn’t know the story behind them. By studying history, I can understand the development of different concepts more clearly. Looking back, I feel that learning histories can help me link the separate events and build a holistic view. However, it is not conducive to using design methods in practice if they are not combined with my own life experiences.
In summary, I learned that reviewing history is beneficial to understanding a concept deeply. Also, don’t just focus on theory, sometimes think outside the box. Lastly, I will observe life well and use these design methods flexibly.
In the future, I will do a comparative analysis to find out how they are related, listing the similarities and differences, when faced with knowledge of similar concepts. Also, I will take these methodologies into account when designing products in real-world projects.
Bibliography
Universal design history: RL Mace universal design institute (no date) UDI. Available at: https://www.udinstitute.org/ud-history (Accessed: November 29, 2022).
Persson, H. et al. (2014) ‘Universal design, inclusive design, accessible design, design for all: Different concepts—one goal? on the concept of accessibility—historical, methodological and philosophical aspects,’ Universal Access in the Information Society, 14(4), pp. 505–526.
Avle, S. (2022) ‘Hardware and data in the platform era: Chinese smartphones in Africa,’ Media, Culture & Society, 44(8), pp. 1473–1489.