ABOUT INFORMATION…

  My mom had a friend reluctantly move into a home that was previously owned by a person who uses a wheelchair. The reluctance was primarily due to unfamiliarity with this different mode of home design. She gave her new home a few personal touches and moved in. To this day she can’t keep quiet about how much she loves her new home and the greater ease it offers with wider doors, hallways and aisles, no steps or thresholds, easily reached storage spaces, and spacious rooms and bathrooms. That is the user experience of universal design. At Universal Design Resource we have one mission: to advocate, educate and support the widespread awareness of universal design. We don’t have to pass any laws or legislation to force it to happen. It’s just a better way to live. Once you know about it, you’ll demand it. Once you demand it, it will happen. You’ll want it in your home, in your appliances and products, your towns and cities, your workplace and place…

Advocate and author Konrad Kaletsch wants you to be inspired by this new way of approaching design. These essays cover a range of considerations when considering the value of universal design. When making any home modifications, make sure to buy his forthcoming book, “I’ve Fallen and My House Picked Me up.”

Articles by a wide variety of authors and institutions.

Many people are contributing to the promotion, education, growth and development of elder care and related areas. Find the work of other blog contributors here.

Many people are contributing to the promotion, education, growth and development of disability issues and assistive technology. Find the work of other blog contributors here.

Many people are contributing to the promotion, education, growth and development of universal design and related areas. Find the work of other blog contributors here.

Although universal design is over thirty years old, there are few books on the topic. This list will direct you to user-friendly books about all applications of universal design in your life.  

As universal design is increasingly practiced, professionals from builders to web designers need guidelines and specs. This list has those more technical books.

Here are bits of information related to universal design sometimes only by a tiny bit.

Links here direct you to different histories, sometimes strictly universal design and sometimes related areas.

Find out where and how to find the information you need (if you didn’t find it easily, we haven’t done our job right). However, for frequent users, the information here will help you navigate more successfully. The descriptions will often be in quotations. This is to inducate that the description was not mine but instead came from the source itself, often the words come from an introduction or mission statement of the website or business itself. INFORMATION:RESOURCES:SHOP:GALLERY:BLOGCONTACT:

Links and files to help you understand and bring universal design into your home.

Find magazines about universal design and related topics here, both online and print.

So you just heard about universal design? Great! Like any good idea, universal design makes things simpler, speaks to your humanity, and appeals to your common sense. If design can marginalize people and push them to the wayside, it can also unite people and bring them together. Universal design is an approach to design that strives to have our products and environments be as usable as possible for the greatest number of people regardless of age or physical ability. Small example: the typical free standing home has a few steps up to the main entrance door. At one time, this was a construction necessity; it helped keep surface water from spilling into your basement. It became the most common construction solution. Designers spruced up this necessity and we soon had the typical American home entrance. Unfortunately, these few steps become a barrier to someone who uses a wheelchair, and is also an inconvenience for many other day-to-day uses such as strollers, wheeled luggage, temporary injuries needing crutches, walkers or wheelchairs…

This page has television and programming links to website where you can view or purchase the content. Please notify UDR if a link is dead as this happens with  programming that changes frequently.

Find video clips (mostly YouTube) about all aspects of universal design.