Ms Siobhán Barron:

Standards can often be voluntary, whereas regulations are mandatory. There are different approaches to this and there is often a minimum degree of accessibility built into those regulations as well. Standards can push beyond the limits of regulation to a higher standard. We are not seeing universal design at a high level of accessibility being factored into many countries. However, we have been progressing in other areas, particularly in the design of goods, services and products. We have been working with EU standard bodies and the ISO on standards and we are starting to see a buy-in to a universal design focus generally in manufacturing and goods. A standard was launched in recent weeks which promotes and rewards anyone who signs up to a standard on universal design in producing goods and services. We are starting to see support for universal design at international level, which is a helpful opening for adoption at local level. Our role in the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design is to promote the adoption of standards by different bodies, voluntary and non-voluntary, and we engage with that proactively. We often develop practical guidelines to support the implementation of those standards. We have worked with the tourism sector, for example, and have developed a suite of guidelines called Building for Everyone: A Universal Design Approach. We have designed universal design homes. We have also developed a set of guidelines for homes for people with dementia in order that they can continue to live in their own homes. Again, those are voluntary standards.