Designing a World for Everyone

The way we experience the world is largely through the design of the places, products, communications, services and systems we encounter every day. Design determines how difficult or easy it is to achieve certain things - whether taking a bath, cooking a meal, crossing the street or making a call, we all want a world that works for us all the time. However, some people are excluded from the simplest and most basic everyday experiences. Why? This is because the act of designing has given insufficient consideration to their level of physical ability or cognitive difference or cultural background or economic circumstance. Over the past 30 years, however, there has been a shift in designing to become more empathic and inclusive of different human needs. The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design at the Royal College of Art first pioneered the concept of inclusive design in the early 1990s and it has gone on to build an extensive portfolio of collaborative projects over a long period, developing ne