Universal Design and disability: an interdisciplinary perspective

To discuss Universal Design (UD) as an interdisciplinary topic with relevance for rehabilitation professions and planning and building professions. Significant for this topic is to discuss to what model of disability UD strategies correlates. The paper argues that the UN Convention on the Rights for Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) pre-supposes a relational model of disability.

This is a theoretical paper on the understanding of UD and the significance of UD as a subject of interdisciplinary research and teaching. The paper is based on literature and focuses on how to understand UD in interdisciplinary contexts. Both impairment effects and disabling barriers are important for understanding UD. Rehabilitation professions together with user-representatives provide knowledge on impairments as an aspect of human diversity; planning professionals provide knowledge on architecture and spatial planning. As an emerging field of knowledge, UD involves different knowledge; however, these differences may also lead to difficulties in communication.

Both theoretically and practically UD must correspond to an understanding of disability as relational, involving person, interaction and barriers. Implementing UD strategies ought to be linked to a concept of person that clearly includes impairments as a dimension of human plurality.

In conclusion, the paper suggests that a common knowledge platform can prove productive for interdisciplinary work with UD. Implications for Rehabilitation Universal Design is a strategy to improve equal access for people with disabilities. A concept of the person and of disability is of importance for implementing Universal Design strategies. The interdisciplinary involvement in Universal Design must involve rehabilitation professions to attend to the individual dimension in Universal Design.