Universally design social policy: when disability disappears?

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to review and evaluate the legal and policy feasibility of applying the principles of Universal Design (UD) to create a “universalised disability policy” that targets the needs and circumstances of persons with disabilities in light of universal human rights, conscious of individual differences. Methods: Applying modified versions of the principles of UD to disability social policy and using core interpretative strategies for human rights implementation (used in the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) to illuminate, by analogy, ways to resolve the dilemma between seeking equality and respecting difference. Results: The aspirations of UD in architecture and planning – namely to design buildings and cities to accommodate the needs of the widest spectrum of abilities as possible – can successfully be applied to social policy that focuses on the needs and circumstances of persons with disabilities, and which underwrites a blueprint for reform in the delivery of social services. Conclusions: “Universal social policy”, and UD, are feasible and desirable approaches to their respective domains, if we adopt a strategy derived from the legal interpretation of human rights implementation. The consequence, however, may be a policy that begins a process of social disappearance of disability.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• The well-recognised principles of Universal Design (UD) have analogs for social policy that focuses on the needs of persons with disabilities.

• Universal social policy is consistent with the rights and aspirations of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

• Universalising social policy may lead eventually to the disappearance of “disability” as a policy category.

• Disability
• human rights
• social policy
• universal design

Declaration of interest

The author reports no conflicts of interest. The author alone is responsible for the content and writing of this article.