Submission: Universal Design Thinking - as an approach for economic recovery

Universal Design is the design of products, services, environments or ICT so that they can be used by anyone regardless of age, size ability or disability. Innovation which builds in a Universal Design approach from the outset has the capacity to reach significantly wider markets than an approach which disregards human diversity and results in outputs suited to a narrower range of abilities.

This paper sets out a practical approach to achieving rapid transformation to stimulate both the private and public sectors though an applied research programme of up-skilling professionals and businesses and educating students in Universal Design Thinking, (UDT). UDT can be achieved at two levels:

• By supporting a designated capacity to research and to create methodologies and tools on UDT for use by Competence centres.
• By integrating UDT as a key approach for all Competence centres.

Please see full submission attached.