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The Rise of Universal Design

There were three main benchmarks in the development of Universal Design.

Several successful services and assistive products have been created for the elderly and persons with disabilities, yet they are expensive and the availability is scarce. Products and services for users without disabilities are however comparably inexpensive and abundant but are oftentimes difficult to use for the elderly and individuals with disabilities. There continues to be a large gap between the number of products and services that are available for the elderly, who often carry a slight disability.

As the population of senior citizens swells, there will be a stronger movement towards adapting products to become accessible by persons with disabilities. As current caregivers age and the market matures, a demand for products incorporating features of existing assistive tools will increase in intensity. This is the movement of universalization.
By continuing to include the voices of the elderly and persons with disabilities during the development of products, products for the general market will also improve, eventually become less expensive, answering to the needs of a wider range of users. It is when this scenario is realized can we say that Universal Design has spread.