CDCI promotes opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities.
If you've never heard of Universal Design (UD)
before, you're not alone. If you have, you may know that it is an
emerging concept that has direct application for higher education that
can launch college and university students into 21st century learning
experiences. Coined by architect Ron Mace, UD is
defined "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 (The Center for Universal Design,
North Carolina University, www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/about_us/usronmace.htm)".
Simply stated, it is the idea of creating, designing, or developing so
that there are multiple ways to accomplish the same tasks, multiple
strategies to get to the same outcome, or alternate paths to the same
destination with fewer barriers for everyone!
Curb cuts and captioning are
everyday examples of universal design that we encounter in many public
places in the US. City and town planners recognized that cuts in
sidewalk curbs at key locations could benefit many different kinds of
uses such as strollers, shopping carts, rolling luggage, bicycles, and
wheelchairs. Similarly, closed captioning in televisions have become
familiar supports for viewers who watch in noisy airports, sports bars
or fitness centers. In fact, it has been reported that
the most common users of captioned television are in private homes
where individual viewers don't want to disturb their housemates. So if
you think UD is about designing for people with disabilities, you are
only partly correct. UD benefits people with disabilities, but UD actually benefits everyone!
Last modified November 20 2009 03:18 PM
