Different Aims and Approaches to Universal Design Research in Denmark

Universal Design (UD) has evolved from the field of architecture (Mace, 1998) to a broad range of professions and research fields (Lid, 2021). Yet, how UD is practiced across organizational and empirical contexts within different fields of academia remains tacit. Different research approaches, methodologies, and scopes of our disciplines affect how human beings are investigated and handled.

To develop an interdisciplinary PhD course on UD, a group of researchers decided to map the various UD practices within the Bevica Foundation’s Interdisciplinary Research Network. All researchers in the network are scholars working within the field of UD in Denmark, and together they represent all educational institutions at university level. In a survey, the network members were invited to describe a specific UD-related project. A workshop session was arranged to facilitate collective mapping, co-analysis, and discussions of the current UD projects among the network members. Building on the survey data and mapping of 16 projects, three themes were explored: research field, research aim, and applied methods. The mapping not only contributes with a representation of the network, regarding how researchers are working with UD in Denmark, but also provides a more diverse and rich narrative in the discourse of UD. The analysis reveals some of the how’s and why’s of our research initiatives, which presents the inter- and transdisciplinary development of the field and showcases diverse research approaches and methods in exploring, describing, and processing people's actions and knowledge. Furthermore, it highlights a common challenge in not only investigating but also aiming to improve everyday living and use in various situations.