MYP Design Inclusive and Accessible Design Notes

Inclusive Design Means One Product, Not a Separate Version

1. Inclusive design sets out to make a single product that as many people as possible can use, rather than a normal version plus a special one.
2. The separate version almost always costs more, arrives later, looks different and marks the person using it, which is why a lever door handle beats a knob with a bolt-on gripper.
3. No product reaches literally everyone, so the honest aim is to push the edges outward and to state clearly who is still excluded.
4. In MYP terms this sits under the key concept of communities and the global context of fairness and development, because who can use a product decides who gets to take part.

Inclusive, accessible and assistive

1. Accessible design usually means meeting a published requirement, like a ramp gradient no steeper than 1 in 12 or a minimum door width for a wheelchair.
2. Assistive design makes a device for one specific need, such as a hearing aid or a cutlery grip, and it stays valuable where inclusion alone cannot stretch far enough.
3. This article stays with the broad principle and with physical products; screen and interface accessibility has its own article and its own rules.

Strength, Dexterity, Sight and Hearing Vary Hugely

1. Grip strength across adults varies by a factor of three or more, so a jar seal that a strong adult opens without thinking is simply shut for somebody else.
2. Arthritis, tremor and weakness after a stroke all cut dexterity, the fine control of fingers, so small fiddly parts like a watch clasp or a blister pack become the barrier.
3. Replacing a pinch with a push or a whole-hand grip solves most dexterity problems: a paddle tap instead of a round tap head, a magnet catch instead of a hook and eye.
4. Around 8 per cent of men and 0.5 per cent of women have some form of colour vision deficiency, most often trouble separating red from green.
5. Low vision is far more common than blindness, so large, high contrast lettering and a raised or textured marker do more good than braille alone.
6. Hearing loss usually takes the high frequencies first, so a thin high-pitched beep is the worst possible alert and a low buzz, a flashing light or a vibration reaches more people.

Age at Both Ends Changes What Works

1. Young children have small hands, little grip force and no experience, so they pull when they should twist and put things in their mouths.
2. They also cannot read a warning, which means the safety has to live in the shape and the mechanism rather than in a label.
3. Older adults lose grip strength steadily from around 60, and joints stiffen, so twisting a lid becomes harder than pushing a lever.
4. Eyes change too: a 60 year old needs roughly twice as much light as a 20 year old to read the same label, and close focus gets worse, so 6 point instructions on a medicine box fail.
5. Reaction time and balance slow, which is why a kettle that is light, sits stably and pours without a full wrist rotation matters more than a clever lid catch.

Most Limits Are Temporary or Situational

1. A permanent limit might be one arm, a temporary one a broken wrist in a cast, and a situational one carrying a baby on your hip.
2. All three need the same thing from the design, which is a task that can be finished one handed.
3. Gloves in winter turn everyone into a low dexterity user, which is why a ski jacket has oversized zip pulls and a car has a physical volume knob.
4. A loud train station makes everyone hard of hearing for ten minutes, and bright sun on a bus stop timetable makes everyone low vision.
5. Counting these cases makes the user group far larger than the number of people with a diagnosed disability, which is the honest argument for doing the work.

The Seven Principles of Universal Design

1. Equitable use: everyone uses the same entrance, so a gentle ramp into the main door beats a side lift by the bins.
2. Flexibility in use: scissors with symmetrical loops work in either hand, so left handers are not given the worse version.
3. Simple and intuitive use: a tap you push down is understood without instructions, no matter what language you read.
4. Perceptible information: a microwave that beeps and shows a light and prints large numbers reaches users through more than one sense.
5. Tolerance for error: a USB-C plug goes in either way round, and a kettle cuts out when it boils dry, so a mistake costs nothing.
6. Low physical effort: a lever tap opens with a forearm or an elbow, which is why hospitals fit them.
7. Size and space for approach and use: a supermarket aisle wide enough for a wheelchair to turn is also wide enough for two trolleys to pass.

Products That Got It Right

1. The OXO Good Grips peeler came from Sam Farber watching his wife Betsey struggle with a thin metal peeler because of arthritis in her hands.
2. The answer was a fat oval handle in soft Santoprene rubber with flexible fins, which spreads the load, grips when wet and needs far less squeeze.
3. It sold to everyone, not just to people with arthritis, because a peeler that hurts less is simply a better peeler.
4. Bleach and other hazardous household bottles carry a raised triangle of bumps on the cap so a blind user feels the warning before pouring.
5. Tactile paving at a crossing does the same job through the feet, using a pattern of raised blunt domes that a long cane and a shoe both pick up.
6. A raised dot on the number 5 of a phone keypad and the small ridges on the F and J keys of a keyboard let any user find their place without looking.