Soon products and services like chairs, mobile phones, televisions, lifts in the buildings, may come with "star ratings" on their universal user-friendlines, indicating the extent to which they are suitable not only for the differently-abled but also others like the elderly and children.
An institute would be ready this year to set norms for services and products to ensure they are of 'universal use', with a focus on the disabled. The four categories in focus for 'universal design' are products, buildings, software and transport.
Dragging on for five years since the idea was announced in 2010, the social justice ministry has circulated a proposal for 'national institute of inclusive and universal design' for cabinet nod. Once approved, the ministry would draft the guidelines to set up the institute.
Importantly, while the recommendations of the NIIUD would be recommendatory, the products may start getting 'star ratings' to denote the extent of "universality' — as done for electrical appliances to convey the extent of energy efficiency.
What makes the initiative path-breaking is that 'universal design' is integral to the 'developed world' but is still to find resonance in India. 'Universal use', through standardization of design, would overcome the problem of access in buildings, software, products and transport.
For instance, the tricky issue in a "lift" is the height at which the buttons should be fitted so that they can be used by a small child, a wheelchair-borne person besides those who have no functional problems. Another issue could be the angle of a ramp to provide buildings with easy access.
It could be about the design or size of a mobile phone so that a blind person can also use it with ease; about hotel beds or the width of a door.
Sources said NIIUD, to be located in the capital, would be a lean body with a consultative board of IITs, National Institutes of Design, School of Planning and Architecture, experts from the corporate world and international organizations. They would take up products and arrive at design or norms according to which they should be manufactured.
As the focus of such endeavours tends to be on cities, the institute would also take up the task of making rural living more inclusive for the disabled.
Sources said with time, the institute would also look at carrying out its own R&D and sponsoring research on 'universal design'.
An institute would be ready this year to set norms for services and products to ensure they are of 'universal use', with a focus on the disabled. The four categories in focus for 'universal design' are products, buildings, software and transport.
Dragging on for five years since the idea was announced in 2010, the social justice ministry has circulated a proposal for 'national institute of inclusive and universal design' for cabinet nod. Once approved, the ministry would draft the guidelines to set up the institute.
Importantly, while the recommendations of the NIIUD would be recommendatory, the products may start getting 'star ratings' to denote the extent of "universality' — as done for electrical appliances to convey the extent of energy efficiency.
What makes the initiative path-breaking is that 'universal design' is integral to the 'developed world' but is still to find resonance in India. 'Universal use', through standardization of design, would overcome the problem of access in buildings, software, products and transport.
For instance, the tricky issue in a "lift" is the height at which the buttons should be fitted so that they can be used by a small child, a wheelchair-borne person besides those who have no functional problems. Another issue could be the angle of a ramp to provide buildings with easy access.
It could be about the design or size of a mobile phone so that a blind person can also use it with ease; about hotel beds or the width of a door.
Sources said NIIUD, to be located in the capital, would be a lean body with a consultative board of IITs, National Institutes of Design, School of Planning and Architecture, experts from the corporate world and international organizations. They would take up products and arrive at design or norms according to which they should be manufactured.
As the focus of such endeavours tends to be on cities, the institute would also take up the task of making rural living more inclusive for the disabled.
Sources said with time, the institute would also look at carrying out its own R&D and sponsoring research on 'universal design'.
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