Given the current demographic change, there is a growing market for designed-for-all goods and services. As they age, consumers face increasing restrictions in various daily activities due to the lack of accessible goods and services. For example, they face difficulties to enter buildings, to use transport facilities and to access information and communication. The increasing use of new technologies (ICTs) is also affecting many other areas of older people’s lives, such as health and social care, social interactions, shopping and travelling. Therefore, investing in designed-for-all products and services is an important mean to access the increasing pool of older consumers and create economic growth and new jobs.
In November 2012, the German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Technology (today’s German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy) commissioned a research project entitled “Developing criteria for guiding SMEs aimed at incorporating the Design for All concept into corporate practices” to a consortium comprising the consultancy offices NeumannConsult and grauwert, the Institute for Innovation Marketing at the Technical University of Hamburg-Harburg and Design for All–Deutschland e.V. (EDAD).
The following summary encompasses this study’s most important results and its conclusions. Click here for the guidelines in German.
For more information, please contact Mathias Knigge,member of AGE Task Force on Standardisation, m.knigge@grauwert.info, or Alice Sinigaglia, alice.sinigaglia@age-platform.eu
