Universal design can help provide a safe and supportive living environment for everyone in your home.

Ron Mace, founder of the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University, defined universal design in the following way:

Universal design is the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.

When thinking about universal design in your home, it means that your home should be flexible enough to accommodate the changing needs and abilities of all who live or visit there. As a caregiver, universal design can help both you and your care reciever live more comfortably and independently in your home.

The Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University states that, The intent of universal design is to simplify life for everyone by making products, communications, and the built environment more usable by as many people as possible at little or no extra cost. Universal design benefits people of all ages and abilities.

The Center for Universal Design has developed seven principles for universal design. They include:

1. Equitable use
2. Flexibility in use
3. Simple and intuitive use
4. Perceptible information
5. Tolerance for error
6. Low physical effort
7. Size and space for approach and use

For more information about Universal Design, what it might mean to you as a caregiver, and how to incorporate this concept into your home, visit the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University: www.design.ncsu.edu/cud.

Another site that may be of interest is www.udeducation.org/index.asp.