A Study of Universal Design in Everyday Life of Elderly Adults

The longevity of the aging populations resulting in a demographic gap is an emergent problem in present society. Universal design philosophy is a transfer towards inclusion promising improved solutions for people with diverse abilities. Nevertheless, often in practice it becomes a mere conception. Existing theoretical guidelines as design principles often fail to result in factual universal design. This is particularly worrying for the lifestyle-improvement of disabled older adults, since no standard ways to evaluate the impacts of universal design principles exist. This paper presents the results of a study on the effect of universal design and its practice involving 31 elderly adults from an elderly home. The study revealed that it would be desirable to explain universal design principles in operational terms to measure and relate them in facilitating the improvement of life quality for older adults. Furthermore, this result is anticipated to stress the importance of further assays concerning the modifying of universal design principles. © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Peer-review under responsibility of organizing committee of the 6th International Conference on Software Development and Technologies for Enhancing Accessibility and Fighting Info-exclusion (DSAI 2015).