ADA, Accessible, Universal, Inclusive

ADA. Accessible. Universal. Inclusive. We throw these terms around like they mean the same thing. 

They don’t.

In Episode #61 of the Making the Museum podcast, experts Sina Bahram and Corey Timpson unpacked the differences with me. 

Here’s one framework (based on US law). More on each in future articles.

ADA — the Americans with Disabilities Act — is civil rights law in the US. It’s the minimum, telling us how to avoid legal discrimination. All designers should know it.

The matching design approach is Accessible Design. This level is just ADA compliance — ramps, captioning, Braille. Necessary and good, but not always sufficient, because it only meets minimums.

Level two is Universal Design, rooted in the work of Ronald Mace. One solution, beyond legal minimums, usable by the widest average range of people. But one solution often doesn’t work for all.

Level three is the gold standard: Inclusive Design. As our podcast guests described it, this is iterative, multimodal, and adjustable. It assumes human variation from the start, not averages. It designs for differences, not commonalities.

Here’s the thing:

In this framework, ADA is the legal floor. 

Level 1: Accessible Design implements it. 

Level 2: Universal Design widens the door. 

Level 3: Inclusive Design asks who’s still missing, then redesigns until they’re not.

Warmly,
Jonathan 

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