Universalism, universal design and equitable access to the built environment

Abstract

Purpose: The concept of universal design (UD) has acquired global significance and become orthodoxy of what is presented as the very best of design practice. This is despite limited evaluation of the theoretical content of the concept. This article seeks to redress this shortfall in knowledge by providing a critique of the theoretical and conceptual components that underpin the principles of universal design.Method: Commentary.Results: The content of UD appears to be reductive and functionalist, with an appeal to discourses of technical flexibility, or the notion that the problems confronting disabled people by poorly designed built environments may be redressed by recourse to technical and management solutions. UD is characterized by its advocation of the marketization of access as the primary means to ensure the accessibility of products, including the built environment. This has the potential to reduce the "right to access" to a right to be exercised through a market presence or transaction. There is also lack of clarity about what advocates of UD understand universalism to be, as illustrated by evidence of some ambivalence towards specialist or particular design solutions.Conclusions: UD provides a useful, yet partial, understanding of the interrelationships between disability and design that may limit how far inequalities of access to the built environment can be overcome. Implications for Rehabilitation Creating universally designed places is integral to rehabilitation. Approaches to universal design (UD) focus, primarily, on the development and application of technologies and techniques to ensure environments are accessible. UD appears to be a technology-led movement. Users' socio-cultural attitudes and values, in shaping behaviour towards, and interactions with, technology and physical design, may be less than wholly integrated into programmes to create universally designed environments. UD subscribes to a model of professional expertise that may limit the role of users in influencing approaches to rehabilitation. Before UD is used as the basis for rehabilitation, more research is required to identify the values shaping its principles, to evaluate how far they represent the most coherent approach to creating an accessible built environment. UD supports market mechanisms as a primary means to create accessible environments and reduces rights to access to a right to be exercised through a market presence or transaction. © 2012 Informa UK, Ltd.