Universal design – from visions to practice in everyday life

Universal design means that products, services and environments are designed so that as many people as possible can use them, regardless of functional ability. The webinar Universal design: From vision to practice in everyday life in the Nordic countries provides three keynote speeches sharing experiences and reflections about the historic development and visions for the future development of universal design in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

• Per-Olof Hedvall (Associate professor, Director of Certec, Department of Design Sciences, Lund University, Sweden) talks about universal design as part of a cultural transformation, where existing thought patterns based on norm-deviation are challenged.
• Kirsti Svinø (Senior Universal design Adviser, Department of Children, Youth and Family, Norway) provides an overview of the efforts of government agencies to further universal design in Norway.
• Camilla Ryhl (Research Director, Bevica Foundation, Denmark) presents experiences from Denmark and highlights the ambitions and initiatives in the Bevica Universal Design Hub to proliferate the value-based term Universal design to help fulfil the pledge of Leave No One Behind from the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

– We have sought to gather experts with different outlooks who focus on various aspects of universal design. Experiences with formulation and implementation of national policy regarding universal design, exploration of universal design as cultural transformation, and experiences with particular initiatives and projects concerning universal design. In addition, they cover experiences from three different countries, explains Jakob Trane Ibsen, chief analyst at VIVE – the National Center for Social Science Research in Denmark.

Making society accessible for everyone

Universal design is one of the goals in the Nordic Programme for Co-operation on Disability Issues 2023 to 2027. The application of universal design makes society accessible to everyone, not just those with disabilities.

At a normative level, there is great similarity among the Nordic countries in terms of the rights for people with disabilities provided in legislation, concerning for example mobility and autonomy. At an institutional level, however, there is a great variety, both between and within the Nordic countries, in how support for people with disability is organized, how service is delivered, and how needs for specialization of skills and services are balanced with needs of normalization and integration of support functions.