User Panels in Universal Design: Staging Outcomes

Universal Design (UD) requires an in-depth understanding of diverse user needs, yet limited research addresses how users with disabilities are meaningfully involved in architectural processes. This paper studies the role of user panels in contributing user perspectives to building projects, drawing on the concept of staging as a lens for analysing how participation is framed. Based on ethnographic fieldwork across two cases involving public clients, the study explores how different forms of knowledge are elicited and performed through user involvement. The findings of the comparative analysis demonstrate that staging, understood as the deliberate configuration of actors, activities, and settings, significantly shapes both the type of knowledge produced and its perceived legitimacy. In the first case, strong staging, characterised by clear roles, structured interactions, and trust in the client, enabled participants to articulate embodied experiences and user needs. In contrast, weaker staging in the second case led participants to adopt a more audit-like role, emphasising legislative requirements and representing the needs of others as a strategy for legitimacy. The paper concludes that user panel does not inherently ensure meaningful integration of user perspectives. Instead, the effectiveness of participation depends on how it is staged, including the allocation of resources, the design of interaction formats, and the positioning of participants. The study contributes to discussions on user involvement in UD by highlighting the importance of staging as a critical, yet often overlooked, component of universal design processes.