Is Universal Design Neurodivergent? Pasts and Futures of Mental Disability in Design

This article explores “Universal Design” and “neurodiversity” as two late-twentieth-century keywords that emerged from distinct but contemporary discourses. Both formulated in the 1990s, Universal Design and neurodiversity presented flexible and changeable frameworks for understanding disability, and both emerged in a time when rapidly changing technologies were significantly altering conversations about disability, access, and inclusion in the digital era. Two of the authors of the Principles of Universal Design (1997) contributed prior experiences designing for and with people with intellectual and cognitive disabilities, and the influence of their work than be seen, however subtly, in aspects of those Principles. As for neurodiversity, the term emerged from communities of autistic adults who used newly available internet forums to discuss and define their experiences away from parental or medical authority; this included guidelines for public spaces and gatherings to accommodate a range of access needs and social preferences. The two concepts were not conceived together, but they suggest new design futures that incorporate flexibility among both designers and users to accommodate a wider range of differences than had been conceived in the twentieth-century history of accessible design. Their alignments forecast a future of design that addresses access as an adaptable and shifting set of goals, rather than a fixed quality of design.