Students’ Attitudes to Universal Design in Architecture Education

Abstract

It is widely recognised that the built environment can dramatically impact on the participation and engagement of people with disability and diverse needs. It has therefore become necessary for architects and designers to consider these needs when working within their profession. The implementation of universal design teaching into architecture and design curriculum has been recognised as an important step in facilitating and enhancing the uptake of universal design during the design process. Using a quantitative approach, this study aimed to compare, contrast and explore the attitudes of two groups of architecture students to the universal design of built environments. One group had received education relating to diversity and universal design as part of a prior project while the other group had not received this content. Findings from this study demonstrated that while there were no significant differences between the two groups, interesting insights and perspectives emerged regarding student attitudes to universal design and the potential influencers of these attitudes.