Front cover of Universal Design and Visitability

The book Universal Design and Visitability. From Accessibility to Zoning deals with a wide range of topics in the field of accessibility and universal design. The book offers insight into universal design efforts in a number of different countries, including the application of universal design in Norwegian national planning policy. The book has been published in the USA by Ohio State University, and contains articles based on papers given at the Universal Design and Visitability Conference (held July 13-14, 2006 in Columbus, Ohio).

The book introduces the concepts of universal design and visitability, and presents:

• a paradigm for the future
• rationale for studying it
• design example
  • a discussion of design for individuals with vision loss,
  • planning barrier free transportation facilities
  • successful county-wide and national policy initiatives
  • the importance of education, and
  • considerations of certain cultural barriers to adoption of policies.