PUDCAD (Practicing Universal Design Principles in Design Education through a CAD-Based Game) aims to educate the future designers to develop innovative solutions for the accessible environments.
The objective is supporting and strengthening the universal design education in international networks. The project is related to one of the foremost priorities of European Commission: to provide the inclusion and efficient accessibility of the people with disabilities into everyday life. Design is one of the keys to prevent their isolation from society and it is the designer's duty to provide accessible environments for everyone. It is essential to embed and widen the awareness of universal design knowledge and provide the efficient education for the future designers to practice it in innovative ways.

The project offers a design game on a CAD-Based platform which aims at bachelor students’ learning and practicing their universal design knowledge skills through an empathetic approach. It intends to provide an innovative way to learn and practice universal design principles for undergraduate students, aiming at triggering the awareness of accessibility and allowing future designers and architects to develop accessible and innovative design ideas.
The game focuses especially on inclusive high school design for the students, aged between 14-19, with cerebral palsy that includes several distinct forms of impairment of motor functions which cause different movement disorders. Being based on real-life needs, it is open for different focus areas in universal design, design education, and new design teaching/learning technologies for design students as well as professionals.

The major tasks of the project are:

• Analyses and Documentation
• Pilot Research / In-site Observation
• Scrutinizing the Game Database
• Developing the Infrastructure
• Developing the Game and Its Supplementary Learning Materials
• Implementing the Game into Universal Design Curricula in International Education Networks
• Widening the Awareness of Universal Design and Creating Innovative Learning Environments

Various legal obligations about universal design will be documented, standards and current educational strategies and methods in teaching universal design will be reported, the differences will be highlighted. Each partner will arrange a pilot study field to be studied by students to determine the current knowledge of Universal Design. Behavioural and perceptual mapping of the high school students will be studied through the selected project field. All collected data will be analysed, reviewed by non-profit organizations and tutors so as to synthesize the inclusive high school design criteria for structuring the game design. A selected IT firm that will be contracted for game design, in terms of service procurement will process the game design in two phases: developing the beta version of the game using the general universal design criteria and focusing on the fixture and furniture design. In the end, PUDCAD will launch an educational game which allow students to learn how to design a totally accessible high school including fixture and furniture design. They will be able to upload their design to see if their project works in terms of universal design.

Project site