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One of the valuable opportunities that has arisen only in
the last few years is to actually the take international definition
of disability as defined by the World Health Organization,
which was changed in a very dramatic way in 2001,
and offers us a platform for talking about these issues
that is valuable in making a case for universal design.
Disability was redefined by WHO over a ten-year process.
And part of what was put aside was the presumption
that disability resides in some individuals.
In the redefinition of disability, the WHO redefined
disability as a mainstream experience of being human.
And all of us, if we live long enough, experience
some change in ability, whether permanent or temporary.
And we should be thinking about disability
as a contextual experience. Functional limitation is a fact.
Disability is a phenomenon of the experience that occurs
by the individual intersecting with the environment.
And that may be the physical environment, the information
The WHO even invited the definition of facilitators to human experience.
And in doing so specifically articulated universal design
as the most promising idea for defining facilitators for experience.
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environment, the communication environment,
or the social and policy environments.
It is a powerful incentive to envision our role as
shaping the actual experience of disability.
We have the power through design to minimize or exaggerate
disabling experiences. That, in my mind, has been
a powerful incentive to making the case for universal design.