ABSTRACT
Research has identified that there is a clear and well established need for all those involved in the design of products, services and environments to take an inclusive approach, and avoid discriminating or disadvantaging users based on their size, shape, age, abilities, needs, or aspirations (Coleman et al., 2003).This need is driven by a number of factors: the ageing population (WHO, 2008), increasing legislation
(DDA, 2005), and a strong moral case that design should not be embodying a philosophy that prevents certain people from using, and enjoying the outcomes that it produces. The persuasiveness of these drivers together with the perceived support for inclusive design amongst the design community would suggest that evidence of inclusively designed outcomes would be common place. However this is often not the case with many designs still primarily catering for the younger and able-bodied. Webelieve that there is, therefore, a need for a newapproach in order to effectively
support designers when attempting to ‘design for all’ that must take into account a number of important issues:
• Tools are often data driven. If the data is unavailable, inaccurate, misleading, unapplicable or just difficult to apply then often the tool is of limited value.
