Universal Design Case Study GraphicThe Institute for Human Centered Design (IHCD), with support from the National Endowment for the Arts through their 2008 Leadership in Universal Design Award, has created a website that hosts an international collection of Universal Design case studies of the built environment. The site is designed to appeal to a global audience of design practitioners, educators, students and other built-environment project stakeholders ranging from individuals to governments. This project seeks to explore the current "best practices" in Universal Design in the built environment and make this information freely available for individuals planning projects in the build environment

What is this Project?
This website hosts an international collection of Universal Design case studies of the built environment designed to appeal to a global audience of design practitioners, educators, students and other built-environment project stakeholders ranging from individuals to governments.  This project seeks to explore the current “best practices” in Universal Design in the built environment and make this information freely available for individuals planning projects in the build environment.

This resource will enable quick and easy access to state-of-the-art case studies of Universal Design in the built environment that illustrate good examples for a diverse audience. With the case studies available anywhere anytime, someone planning to build a new school or health center or to renovate an historic cultural facility would readily access information about inclusively designed precedents.

What is Universal Design?
Universal Design is a framework for the design of places, things, information, communication and policy to be usable by the widest range of people operating in the widest range of situations without special or separate design. Most simply, Universal Design is human-centered design of everything with everyone in mind.Universal Design is also called Inclusive Design, Design-for-All and Lifespan Design. It is not a design style but an orientation to any design process that starts with a responsibility to the experience of the user. It has a parallel in the green design movement that also offers a framework for design problem solving based on the core value of environmental responsibility. Universal Design and green design are comfortably two sides of the same coin but at different evolutionary stages. Green design focuses on environmental sustainability, Universal Design on social sustainability.

What information is contained in this case study website?
Each case study will include descriptions of the project’s Universal Design and environmental design features, evaluations, photos, images and information about the team that designed and built the project.  The categories are health, outdoor places, transport, commercial, culture, education, housing, public buildings and historic preservation and worship spaces. Case studies are rich in visual supports. On the website, there are multiple ways to search for case studies. We intend for this case study website to be fully accessible.