As more boomers enter the senior generation, the planning and design community continues to seek ways to design health care and wellness facilities for this significant cohort. This is challenging because there is no clear definition of this cohort’s needs and desires with regard to the health care built environment.
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.
