This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Accessibility This article is within the scope of WikiProject Accessibility, a group of editors promoting better access for disabled or otherwise disadvantaged users. For more information, such as what you can do to help, see the main project page.AccessibilityWikipedia:WikiProject AccessibilityTemplate:WikiProject AccessibilityAccessibility Disability Universal usability is within the scope of WikiProject Disability. For more information, visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.DisabilityWikipedia:WikiProject DisabilityTemplate:WikiProject DisabilityDisability Industrial design This article is within the scope of WikiProject Industrial design, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Industrial design on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Industrial designWikipedia:WikiProject Industrial designTemplate:WikiProject Industrial designIndustrial design ??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale. Urban studies and planning This article is within the scope of WikiProject Urban studies and planning, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of Urban studies and planning on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Urban studies and planningWikipedia:WikiProject Urban studies and planningTemplate:WikiProject Urban studies and planningUrban studies and planning ??? This article has not yet received a rating on the project's importance scale.

The creation of this page is a group project of Dr. Kent Norman's Spring semester 2006 course, Seminar in Human Performance Theory: Human/Computer Interaction, at the University of Maryland, College Park.

Good start. Can you also support universal usability with other leaders in the field? Also, needs to refine the areas of usability and how to cut across differences among users (e.g., expertise, IQ, reading speed, typing speed, gender, language, etc.) Finally, the examples that you give are all hardware and ergonomics rather than the idea of multi-layer designs.

Good description.

Whereas there is not likely to be an average user, is there not an average market that needs to be targeted? Economics will drive much of the development and the product will have to have an "average" user in mind, even with multiple layers.

The curb cut analogy is good, but I must add that each curb cut or ramp costs money. Who pays for the accessibility features? If the ramp is the only place a user can get off the sidewalk, won't most users feel confined by them? True universality would require multi-level and user programmable functions which would cost money, introduce glitches or bugs, and slow down operations. I would add something about trade-offs or cost of such systems and how most people react to them. Do people use the programmable functions or switch to different levels or do they just stick with what is presented?

Is there any research going on at other institutions that deals with universal usability? Perhaps you could also add a section until the current usability problems that details that current research to solve these problems.Kgroth 16:36, 24 April 2006 (UTC)Reply

OK, good article.