Recognizing diversity within everyone’s lived experience: Strengthening the theoretical foundations of Universal Design
Hedvall, Per-Olof LU
; McArthur, Jan
and Cranmer, Sue
(2018)
Lancaster Disability Studies Conference
p.104-105
- Abstract
- Recognizing diversity within everyone’s lived experience:
Strengthening the theoretical foundations of Universal Design
This paper situates Universal Design (UD) within the framework of
social justice theory, drawing Honneth’s conceptualisation of social
justice as mutual recognition. It takes as a starting point the
perspective that UD requires a robust theorisation and rationale to
support implementation in practice. For Honneth, social injustice
occurs when mutual recognition believed to be legitimate is withheld.
He offers a tripartite understanding of social justice with three
different spheres of recognition needed to realise a fulfilled life: love
(focused on affective care; emotional... (More) - Recognizing diversity within everyone’s lived experience:
Strengthening the theoretical foundations of Universal Design
This paper situates Universal Design (UD) within the framework of
social justice theory, drawing Honneth’s conceptualisation of social
justice as mutual recognition. It takes as a starting point the
perspective that UD requires a robust theorisation and rationale to
support implementation in practice. For Honneth, social injustice
occurs when mutual recognition believed to be legitimate is withheld.
He offers a tripartite understanding of social justice with three
different spheres of recognition needed to realise a fulfilled life: love
(focused on affective care; emotional support); respect (focused on
equal treatment in law); esteem (focused on the traits and abilities
that people have through which they contribute to the social whole).
Connecting Honneth’s fundamental set of social justice concerns to UD
can potentially stimulate debate; engage new audiences. It can
demonstrate that to treat others as anything less than full members of
society, as in the case of discrimination or a lack of care, diminishes
ourselves. UD has been around for more than thirty years, and stands
for an ambition to design with people of all ages and abilities in mind.
It marks a shift from working towards accessibility to primarily support
disabled people to inclusive design, targeting all people. We argue that
while UD remains strongly associated with the disability community, its
chances of being universally accepted and realised remain remote. We
use Honneth’s work to demonstrate the need to understand UD as
relating to all members of society, not just those with impairments and
to highlight how everyone can potentially experience disablement due
to the environment. This can occur when there is a misrecognition of
social needs that would benefit from a commitment to UD, such as
creating inclusive public spaces for families with children, stimulating inclusive workplaces, or making life a little bit easier when someone
breaks a leg. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/456f77b4-8e66-4df1-bffd-41583a3d66a9
- author
- Hedvall, Per-Olof
LU
; McArthur, Jan
and Cranmer, Sue
- organization
- publishing date
- 2018
- type
- Contribution to conference
- publication status
- published
- subject
- pages
- 104 - 105
- conference name
- Lancaster Disability Studies Conference
- conference location
- Lancaster, United Kingdom
- conference dates
- 2018-09-11 - 2018-09-13
- language
- Swedish
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 456f77b4-8e66-4df1-bffd-41583a3d66a9
- alternative location
- http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/disabilityconference2018/files/2018/08/book-of-abstracts-final.pdf
- date added to LUP
- 2022-03-08 10:36:58
- date last changed
- 2025-04-04 13:54:48
@misc{456f77b4-8e66-4df1-bffd-41583a3d66a9,
abstract = {{Recognizing diversity within everyone’s lived experience:<br/>Strengthening the theoretical foundations of Universal Design<br/>This paper situates Universal Design (UD) within the framework of<br/>social justice theory, drawing Honneth’s conceptualisation of social<br/>justice as mutual recognition. It takes as a starting point the<br/>perspective that UD requires a robust theorisation and rationale to<br/>support implementation in practice. For Honneth, social injustice<br/>occurs when mutual recognition believed to be legitimate is withheld.<br/>He offers a tripartite understanding of social justice with three<br/>different spheres of recognition needed to realise a fulfilled life: love<br/>(focused on affective care; emotional support); respect (focused on<br/>equal treatment in law); esteem (focused on the traits and abilities<br/>that people have through which they contribute to the social whole).<br/>Connecting Honneth’s fundamental set of social justice concerns to UD<br/>can potentially stimulate debate; engage new audiences. It can<br/>demonstrate that to treat others as anything less than full members of<br/>society, as in the case of discrimination or a lack of care, diminishes<br/>ourselves. UD has been around for more than thirty years, and stands<br/>for an ambition to design with people of all ages and abilities in mind.<br/>It marks a shift from working towards accessibility to primarily support<br/>disabled people to inclusive design, targeting all people. We argue that<br/>while UD remains strongly associated with the disability community, its<br/>chances of being universally accepted and realised remain remote. We<br/>use Honneth’s work to demonstrate the need to understand UD as<br/>relating to all members of society, not just those with impairments and<br/>to highlight how everyone can potentially experience disablement due<br/>to the environment. This can occur when there is a misrecognition of<br/>social needs that would benefit from a commitment to UD, such as<br/>creating inclusive public spaces for families with children, stimulating inclusive workplaces, or making life a little bit easier when someone<br/>breaks a leg.}},
author = {{Hedvall, Per-Olof and McArthur, Jan and Cranmer, Sue}},
language = {{swe}},
pages = {{104--105}},
title = {{Recognizing diversity within everyone’s lived experience: Strengthening the theoretical foundations of Universal Design}},
url = {{http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/disabilityconference2018/files/2018/08/book-of-abstracts-final.pdf}},
year = {{2018}},
}