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Design for All

Good design enables, bad design disables.

Paul Hogan

What is Design for All?

Design for All is design for human diversity, social inclusion and equality. This holistic and innovative approach constitutes a creative and ethical challenge for all planners, designers, entrepreneurs, administrators and political leaders.

Design for All aims to enable all people to have equal opportunities to participate in every aspect of society. To achieve this, the built environment, everyday objects, services, culture and information – in short, everything that is designed and made by people to be used by people – must be accessible, convenient for everyone in society to use and responsive to evolving human diversity.

The practice of Design for All makes conscious use of the analysis of human needs and aspirations and requires the involvement of end users at every stage in the design process.

From the Stockholm Declaration (opens in a new tab), EIDD, 2004
The process

An overall vision that includes people in the design process

Design for All makes involving people a condition of the project: the same need we now see spreading through Co-Design (opens in a new tab). People express the needs and wishes a project must address, so including them gives the project a solid point of reference. It allows the project to be tested continuously, from the initial requirements to the final stage, through the concept and every step in between. This creates the conditions for the project to succeed and to innovate.

Case studies

Every person is physically, emotionally and socially complex

There is no such thing as a standard person.

Each person is a complex system, with abilities that change throughout life. Precisely because Design for All is design for human diversity, population ageing grows more relevant every day: on 1 January 2025, 22% of people in the European Union were aged 65 or over, and 24.7% in Italy (Eurostat (opens in a new tab)).

Older people’s experiences, expectations and familiarity with technology also vary widely. We explore these differences in real contexts of use, to design environments, services and products that support independence, comfort and dignity without giving up the appeal and emotion they should convey.

An ageing Europe, from 2005 to 2100

The share of people aged 65 or over, country by country. Move the slider or play through the years; tap a country to see its figures.

Eurostat, demo_pjanind (observed data, updated 25 September 2026) and proj_25ndbi, EUROPOP2025 projections, baseline scenario (updated 11 June 2026). The 27 EU Member States, plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland. Countries without projections are shown in grey.

All the data

Design for All, Inclusive Design and Universal Design

Three approaches that emerged in different places with a shared aim: to design for the widest possible range of people and to improve quality of life.

  • United States

    Universal Design

    The term was proposed by the architect Ronald Mace in the mid-1980s. In 1997 a working group he led at North Carolina State University set out its seven principles. It grew alongside US legislation on the rights of people with disabilities, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

  • United Kingdom

    Inclusive Design

    It took hold in the 1990s as a response to population ageing: in 1994 Roger Coleman, at the Royal College of Art in London, laid its foundations. Its aim is to make mainstream products and services accessible to as many people as possible, without the need for special adaptations. In 2005 the British standard BS 7000-6 set out how to manage it.

  • Europe

    Design for All

    It is rooted in the Scandinavian tradition of “a society for all”. EIDD, founded in Dublin in 1993, adopted it in 1995 as an approach to quality of life, inclusion and equality. In 2004 the Stockholm Declaration gave it its definition; today the European standard EN 17161 brings it into organisations.

We work with both Design for All and Inclusive Design, because the differences between the two approaches enrich the project.

To find out more, read the article Design for All, Inclusive Design, Universal Design: design approaches compared.

The standards that address Design for All

Design for All is now part of European standardisation. UNI EN 17161:2019 sets out the requirements for an organisation to embed Design for All in the way it designs, develops and provides products, goods and services, so that more people can use them. The Italian reference practice UNI/PdR 183:2025 applies this approach to equipment and services in domestic, shared and public environments.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities defines “universal design”. Alongside these references come the accessibility requirements of Directive (EU) 2019/882, the European Accessibility Act, which have applied to certain products and services since 28 June 2025.

  1. 1993

    EIDD, the European Institute for Design and Disability, is founded in Dublin by Paul Hogan.

  2. 1995

    In Barcelona, EIDD adopts Design for All as an approach to quality of life, inclusion and equality.

  3. 2004

    The Stockholm Declaration, on 9 May, gives Design for All its definition.

  4. 2006

    The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities defines “universal design”.

  5. 2019

    EN 17161, the first European standard on Design for All. Directive (EU) 2019/882, the European Accessibility Act.

  6. 2024

    The Gaia Declaration, on 7 June, brings Design for All to bear on climate, conflict and digital technologies.

  7. 2025

    The UNI/PdR 183 reference practice. From 28 June the accessibility requirements of the European Accessibility Act apply.

Design for All for the Earth

In 2024, EIDD – Design for All Europe extended the Stockholm Declaration’s vision to climate, conflict and digital technologies. It is the vision that guides our work towards an inclusive and sustainable future.

  1. Climate change is an incontrovertible fact. In this new context, Design for All involves experiencers in devising a constant flow of diverse viable responses to enable all people to live dignified lives and achieve their highest potential and aspirations.

  2. A sustainable agenda can only be complete if it is environmentally friendly, affordable, resilient and socially aware, i.e. truly useable by everyone in ever-changing societies. This is the responsibility of Design for All.

  3. Our societies are culturally, ethnically and religiously diverse and most are ageing rapidly. Although this growing diversity is evidence of the most successful advance in human history, it is a challenging political reality that calls for a radical shift in thinking that can only come from the practice of Design for All: continuous consultation, education and awareness-raising for inclusion.

  4. Violence, strife, conflict and emergencies are always present. Design for All responds with its inclusive, experiencer-centred process, generating in the short term emergency responses; in the medium term reconstruction; in the long term the peace process itself.

  5. Digital worlds also matter: the rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies presents both a challenge and an opportunity, playing an important role as partners with Design for All to achieve greater inclusion.

  6. EIDD Design for All therefore calls on the European and international institutions, national, regional and local governments and professionals, businesses and social actors to take all appropriate measures to implement Design for All in their policies and actions. Time is running out: action is needed now, in the name of Gaia, in the name of humanity.

From the Gaia Declaration (opens in a new tab), EIDD – Design for All Europe, 2024

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