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Universal Usability: Related Concepts

By Gerd Waloszek, SAP AG, SAP User Experience – 12/05/2007 • Original article

This page complements my article on universal usability with definitions of the related concepts universal access and universal design.

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Universal Access: "Accessible by All"

Definition

The following definition of universal access can be found at Wikipedia:

Universal access refers to the ability of all people to have equal opportunity and access to a service or product from which they can benefit, regardless of their social class, ethnicity, background or physical disabilities. It is a vision, and in some cases a legal term, that spans many fields, including education, disability, telecommunications, and healthcare. It is tied strongly to the concept of human rights.

In many developed countries an infrastructure exists to help implement the vision. Examples include access to education at the grade school, high school, and sometimes college level; disability-related laws such as the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 in the United States; universal access policies and funding that support for telecommunications infrastructure to underserved rural and inner city areas such as high bandwidth lines to local government and healthcare buildings in small towns; and universal access to healthcare in some countries, especially in Europe, Canada, and Japan.

Relationship between Universal Access and Universal Usability

According to Shneiderman (2000), "the term universal access is usually linked to the U.S. Communications Act of 1934 covering telephone, telegraph, and radio services." This law sought to ensure "adequate facilities at reasonable charges," especially in rural areas, and prevent "discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex." Shneiderman argues that while the term universal access has also been applied to computing services, the greater complexity of these services implies that access alone is not sufficient to ensure successful usage. Therefore, he continues, "universal usability has emerged as an important issue and a topic for computing research."

Jonathan Lazar (2007) points out that "conceptually, universal access means something different from universal usability," namely ensuring that all people have access to technology. He continues: "Access simply means having the equipment, the technology, and the opportunity to access a system. User diversity does not come into play, and ease of use is not an issue." He concedes, however, that "in reality, the term universal usability is often used to mean the exact definition of universal usability, and many of the conferences in this area are called universal access while featuring work on usability."

 

Universal Design: "Design for All"

Definition

Architect Ron Mace coined the term universal design in the early 1980s. At that time, it was recognized that improving the access for people with disabilities often meant better access for everyone. His definition of universal design is as follows:

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.

Universal design intends 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. Thus, universal design attempts to benefit people of all ages and abilities.

Relationship to Universal Access

In many publications, the term universal access is used with respect to people's ability to access ecological, cultural, communication, and other resources. The concepts of universal access and universal design are closely related. I would distinguish the two as follows:

Thus, universal design is a design strategy for reaching the goal of universal access.

Principles of Universal Design

Universal design is based on the following seven principles:

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

For an explanation of the principles, see Principles of Universal Design (NC State University) or Universal Design on the SAP Design Guild. There you will also find details and further references. Note that several of the principles might also be subsumed under the label "usability."

 

References (Universal Access, Universal Design)

 

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