I recently attended a conference on the design of mental health facilities. TheDesign in Mental Health Network (DiMHN), which organised the event, is a social enterprise that aims to bring together people with a range of experience, such as architects, designers, service users and mental health professionals, to share ideas about the design of mental healthcare settings.
Universal Design (UD) is an approach to design that increases the potential for developing a better quality of life for a wide range of individuals. It is a design process that enables and empowers a diverse population by improving human performance, health and wellness, and social participation (Steinfeld and Maisel, 2012). It creates products, systems, and environments to be as usable as possible by as many people as possible regardless of age, ability or situation.
