Universal Design Links

Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDEA)

• The IDeA Center is dedicated to making environments and products more usable, safer and healthier in response to the needs of an increasingly diverse population.  The IDeA Center’s activities are based on the philosophy of Inclusive Design, often called “Universal Design” or “Design for All.”  It is a way of thinking that can be applied in any design activity, business practice, program or service involving interaction of people with the physical, social or virtual worlds.
  

Center for Universal Design (CUD)

• CUD is a national information, technical assistance, and research center that evaluates, develops, and promotes accessible and universal design in housing, commercial and public facilities, outdoor environments, and products.  CUD’s mission is to improve environments and products through design innovation, research, education and design assistance.

EIDD - Design for All Europe

• EIDD - Design for All Europe is a federation of national and corporate member organisations in 22 European countries.  With a strong inter-disciplinary approach, the majority of members are professionals in design-related fields.  The aim of EIDD is to encourage active interaction and communication between professionals interested in the theory and practise of Design for All. 
  
• Design for All is design for human diversity, social inclusion and equality.  This holistic and innovative approach constitutes a creative and ethical challenge for all planners, designers, entrepreneurs, administrators and political leaders.  Design for All aims to enable all people to have equal opportunities to participate in every aspect of society.  To achieve this, the built environment, everyday objects, services, culture and information – in short, everything that is designed and made by people to be used by people – must be accessible, convenient for everyone in society to use and responsive to evolving human diversity.  The practice of Design for All makes conscious use of the analysis of human needs and aspirations and requires the involvement of end users at every stage in the design process.

Homemods.org

• The National Resource Center on Supportive Housing and Home Modification is a university-based, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting aging in place and independent living for persons of all ages and abilities.

Institute for Human Centered Design (IHCD)

• IHCD, formerly known as Adaptive Environments (AE), is a 30 year old international non-profit organization, based in Boston, committed to advancing the role of design in expanding opportunity and enhancing experience for people of all ages and abilities.  IHCD’s work balances expertise in legally required accessibility with promotion of best practices in human-centered or universal design.

National Center on Accessibility (NCA)

• NCA promotes access and inclusion for people with disabilities in parks, recreation and tourism.  Based at Indiana University and established in 1992 through a cooperative agreement with the National Park Service, NCA has emerged as a leading authority on access issues unique to park and recreation programs and facilities.  NCA believes that the principles of universal design and inclusion are important factors for achieving personal wellness and building healthy communities.

Rolling Rains Report

• The Rolling Rains site is a service to the travel & hospitality industry.  It provides resources on Inclusive Tourism - a concept arising from the vigor of a global disability community that both enjoys and asserts the right to full social inclusion.  Inclusive Tourism is the systematic application of Universal Design by the travel and hospitality industry at every stage of a product, service, or policy life cycle.
  

The Sensory Trust

• The Sensory Trust promotes and implements: an inclusive approach to design and management of outdoor space; richer connections between people and place; and equality of access for all people, regardless of age, disability or background.

Trace Research & Development Center

• The Trace Center is a part of the College of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Trace's mission is to prevent the barriers and capitalize on the opportunities presented by current and emerging information and telecommunication technologies, in order to create a world that is as accessible and usable as possible for as many people as possible.

United States Access Board

• A federal agency committed to accessible design.

Universal Design E-World

• UD E-World was developed and is supported by the Center on Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDEA Center), University at Buffalo, State University of New York.  It is an interactive community for professionals, educators, and students interested in learning and contributing to the advancement of UD.  UD E-World serves as a participatory environment with web based tools to support the "community of practice" in universal design.  All ongoing research, development projects and publications can be found on UD E-World.

Universal Design Living Laboratory (UDLL)

• UDLL's mission is to bring about awareness of the quality of indoor and outdoor lifestyle through universal design, green building, safety, and healthy home construction practices to the public, construction and design industries.