Webinar (3) - Universal design: From vision to practice in everyday life in the Nordic countries

The webinar provides three keynote speeches sharing experiences and reflections about the historic development and visions for the future development of universal design in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

Per-Olof Hedvall talks about universal design as part of a cultural transformation, where existing thought patterns based on norm-deviation are challenged.

Kirsti Svinø provides an overview of the efforts of government agencies to further universal design in Norway.

Camilla Ryhl presents experiences from Denmark and highlights the ambitions and initiatives in the Bevica Universal Design Hub to proliferate the value-based term Universal design to help fulfil the pledge of Leave No One Behind from the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Each speaker gives a talk of 20 minutes. Speeches are followed by one half hour of comments, questions and discussion.

 

Programme

1.	Welcome and introduction
2.	Topic Universal design: From vision to practice in everyday life in the Nordic countries Keynote speakers Per-Olof Hedvall, Associate professor, Director of Certec, Department of Design Sciences, Lund University: “Universal Design—A Shift in Culture?” Kirsti Svinø, Senior Universal design Adviser, Department of Children, Youth and Family, Norway: “Experiences and visions in local and national policies to transform universal design into practice in Norway” Camilla Ryhl, Research Director, Bevica Foundation, Denmark: “Historical trends and Bevica Universal Design Hub to proliferate the value-based term Universal design – experiences, visions and practice.
3.	Questions and comments
4.	Closing remarks, thank you and goodbye

Practicalities

The webinar is held in English, with live text translation available. Keynote presentations and discussion will be recorded and shared at vive.dk.

Background

At a normative level, there is great similarity among the Nordic countries in terms of the rights for people with disabilities provided in legislation, concerning for example mobility and autonomy. At an institutional level, however, there is a great variety, both between and within the Nordic countries, in how support for people with disability is organized, how service is delivered, and how needs for specialization of skills and services are balanced with needs of normalization and integration of support functions. This variety at the institutional level is a source of ‘Nordic surplus value’ of knowledge and experience that, when shared, can inspire development of practice and policies. For example, the ways in which the countries offer personal assistance differ greatly, and they change over time.

The Nordic Welfare Center is a central hub for attaining a surplus value of knowledge about what these differences entail for citizens, practitioners and policymakers. Therefore, the Nordic Welfare Center sponsors a webinar series on disability research and practice, in the period 2022-2024.

Aims

The aims of the webinar series are:

• To facilitate sharing of knowledge and experiences concerning disability research and practice, of both national, regional, and municipal levels
• To integrate perspectives of users of disability services, practitioners within services for people with disabilities, as well as researchers and policymakers.
• To complement existing and long-running Nordic initiatives within as well as outside NWC (such as the Nordic Network on Disability Research) with a particular focus on highly specialised services and service needs

Topics

The webinar series will cover a range of topics: Organization of support systems – who has the responsibility?; inclusive schools and the organization of individual support in schools; universal design; service delivery systems – public, private, and non-profit; measures of quality, progress, and user satisfaction; governing and coordinating professionalization and specialization; comparing personal assistance and related support functions.

Format

Each webinar will cover one main topic by two to three keynote speeches by researchers or practitioners, followed by questions and comments from a panel, mainly by practitioners from user organizations, or from local, regional or state-level government functions.

Organizers

The webinar series is organized by a range of organizations, under the auspices of the Nordic Welfare Center, including THL – The Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Socialstyrelsen - Sverige, Helsedirektoratet-Norge, Socialstyrelsen-Danmark. The main organizer is VIVE – the National Center for Social Science Research in Denmark.

More information and registration

You can read more about the previous webinars here:

Webinar (1): How is support for people with disability organized – experiences from the Nordic Region

Webinar (2): Equal right to education - Inclusive schools and the organization of individual support

 

Register for Webinar (3) Universal design: From vision to practice in everyday life in the Nordic countries | VIVE - Det Nationale Forsknings- og Analysecenter for Velfærd (nemtilmeld.dk)