Last year, journalist and creativity consultant Rebecca Atkinson noticed a striking absence of disabled characters within her kids’ massive toy collection, so she did a little digging; she discovered that, outside of the occasional broken-leg-with-cast, disabled representation across the entire toy industry amounts to basically nil.
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.
