The Complete Universal Design Guide: Principles, Features & Homes That Work for Everyone
Universal design is the practice of creating homes that work for everyone who lives in them and everyone who visits. That means no separate entrance, no room that only certain people can use, and no equipment bolted on after something has already gone wrong. The house simply fits the people in it.
The idea sounds simple. Still, it changes nearly every decision in a remodel, from the width of a hallway to the height of a light switch. Done well, it also disappears. Guests notice that a home feels open and easy. They rarely notice why.
This guide covers what universal design is, how it differs from accessible design and aging in place, which features are worth building in first, and how these choices play out in the housing stock across Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, D.C.
What Universal Design Actually Means
The term comes from architect Ronald Mace, who founded the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University. His definition still holds up: design products and spaces so that as many people as possible can use them, without adaptation and without anything specialized.
That last part is the whole point. A ramp added to a front porch is an adaptation. A gently graded walkway that everyone uses is universal design. Both solve the same problem. Only one of them looks like the rest of the house.
In practice, universal design means asking a different question during planning. Instead of asking who lives here now, we ask who might live here, visit here, or need this room over the next twenty years. Then we build to that answer.
Universal Design vs. Accessible Design vs. Aging in Place
These three terms get used interchangeably, including by people who should know better. They are related, but they are not the same thing, and the difference shapes what actually gets built. Knowing which one you need keeps a project from being scoped too narrowly or too broadly.
Accessible design solves for a specific need. Someone uses a wheelchair, so the bathroom gets a roll-in shower and a roll-under sink. The work is targeted and often driven by a diagnosis or an injury. Our accessible design work usually starts here.
Aging in place solves for a stage of life. The goal is staying in the home comfortably and safely as needs change. Our complete aging in place remodeling guide goes deep on that side, including the room-by-room checklist.
Universal design solves for everyone at once. It does not wait for a reason. A household with two young children benefits from the same wide doorways and lever handles that help a parent recovering from knee surgery.
In short, universal design is the broadest of the three, and the other two sit inside it. A home built this way rarely needs a targeted accessibility project later, because the bones already support one. That is the practical argument for starting here.
The Seven Principles Behind Universal Design
Mace’s team published seven principles in the late 1990s, and they still guide good work today. Each one translates into something concrete in a house.
- Equitable use. Everyone uses the same entrance and the same rooms.
- Flexibility in use. A counter at two heights works for someone standing or seated.
- Simple and intuitive use. Controls make sense without instructions.
- Perceptible information. Lighting, contrast, and labeling make things easy to find.
- Tolerance for error. Non-slip flooring and rounded counter edges forgive a misstep.
- Low physical effort. Lever handles, pocket doors, and pull-out shelves reduce strain.
- Size and space for approach and use. Enough clear floor area to turn, reach, and pass.
Most homeowners never read these principles. That is fine. Their designer should know them, because they explain why certain layouts feel effortless and others feel like a fight.
Universal Design Features Worth Building In Now
Some features cost almost nothing extra when they are part of a remodel already underway. Retrofitting them later costs considerably more. Below are the ones worth planning for first.
Entries and Approach
A step-free entry is the single highest-value change in most homes. It helps with strollers, groceries, luggage, and mobility devices alike. Grading, landscaping, and a covered porch can do this work without a ramp in sight, which pays off considerably during an icy January in the region.
Wide, well-lit walkways help too. So do package shelves next to the door and lever-style hardware that opens with a full hand or an elbow. None of it reads as an accommodation, because none of it looks like one.
Doorways, Hallways, and Transitions
Thirty-six inch hallways and thirty-two inch clear door openings are the working targets. Pocket doors and barn-style doors save swing space in tight spots. Flush thresholds between rooms remove trip hazards and make flooring look better at the same time.
These are structural choices, so they belong early in the design phase. Changing them after framing is expensive and sometimes not possible at all. Deciding on them while the plan is still on paper costs nothing.
Bathrooms
The curbless shower has quietly become a luxury feature, which is a good example of universal design going mainstream. Add a linear drain, frameless glass, a bench, and a handheld sprayer on a slide bar, and the room reads as spa rather than clinical.
Blocking in the walls is the cheap insurance nobody regrets. It lets grab bars go in later without opening tile. Comfort-height toilets, contrasting floor and wall tile, and a floating vanity round out most bathroom remodeling plans. Our guide to wheelchair accessibility remodeling covers the more involved version of this work.
Kitchens
Kitchens reward this thinking more than any other room, because everyone uses them constantly. Varied counter heights allow prep while seated or standing. Drawers beat lower cabinets, since nothing requires kneeling. Side-opening wall ovens, drawer microwaves, and induction cooktops with front controls all reduce reaching across heat.
Touch-activated or sensor faucets help anyone carrying a pot or managing limited hand strength. For more on how these choices fit a full remodel, see our custom kitchen remodeling work.
Lighting, Controls, and Technology
Older homes in this area are chronically underlit. Layered lighting fixes that, and motion-activated fixtures along hallways and stairs add real safety at night.
Rocker switches, thermostats at reachable heights, and voice or app control for lights, locks, and shades round it out. It earns its place when it removes a physical demand from a daily task, not when it simply adds another screen to the wall.
Moving Between Floors
Multi-story homes need a plan. Sometimes that is a main-level bedroom and full bath. Sometimes it is a stair lift. In other cases a residential elevator makes the most sense, and today’s models are quiet, compact, and finished to match the home. Our post on adding a home elevator and our home elevator additions service page both go further on the options.
Even when none of this happens now, stacking closets on each floor preserves a future elevator shaft. That single decision costs nothing during framing, and it saves a substantial amount later. Planning for the option is not the same as committing to it.
Why It Looks Like Good Design, Not Medical Equipment
The old objection to accessible features was that they made a home look institutional. That objection is outdated, and the market has moved past it. Look at what currently sells as high-end and the reason becomes obvious.
The list runs long: curbless showers, floating vanities, wide plank flooring with flush transitions, open sightlines, oversized doors, and touchless fixtures. Every one of those originated in accessible or universal design thinking. They are now simply what a well-designed home looks like.
Where a support is genuinely needed, it can be integrated rather than announced. Grab bars now come as sculptural towel bars and shower shelves. Shower seats fold flat into the wall. Handrails can be millwork.
There is a dignity argument here as well. A home should not remind someone daily of what has changed for them. Instead, it should simply do its job for whoever is standing in the room.
What the Research Says About Accessible Homes
Two findings are worth knowing before you plan, because together they explain why this work keeps growing. The first concerns safety in the home. The second concerns what people actually want from the houses they already own.
First, falls are the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries among adults 65 and older, and roughly one in four older adults reports a fall each year according to the CDC. Bathrooms, stairs, and hallways account for a large share. Lighting, flooring, blocking, and layout are therefore not cosmetic decisions.
Second, most people want to stay put. AARP’s 2024 Home and Community Preferences Survey found that 75 percent of adults age 50 and older want to remain in their current homes as they age, and 73 percent want to stay in their communities. Over half said they will need a home that supports living independently.
Those two facts point the same direction. The demand is real, the housing supply is largely unprepared, and homes already designed for it stand out to a wider pool of buyers.
Universal Design in Maryland, Northern Virginia, and D.C. Homes
Regional housing stock creates specific challenges. The colonial is the most common example. Bedrooms sit upstairs, the powder room is downstairs, and there is no full bath on the main level. A main-level suite or a bathroom expansion usually solves it, and our guide to main-level living walks through how.
Split-levels present a different puzzle. Half-flights of stairs appear every few steps, which makes a single elevator or lift less useful. Regrading an entry and reworking one level into a complete living zone often works better.
Townhouses throughout Arlington, Alexandria, Rockville, and Silver Spring typically put the garage on the lowest level with living space above. A lift or elevator makes a real difference there, since the entry sequence itself is the barrier.
Sloped lots are common across Montgomery County and Fairfax County. That can be an advantage, because a grade change often allows a step-free entry on one side of the house with no ramp at all. Permitting requirements vary by county and municipality, so structural changes need review before design is finalized.
Universal Design for Multigenerational Households
More families in this region are living together across generations. Sometimes a parent moves in. Sometimes an adult child stays longer. Either way, the household needs privacy and independence at the same time.
An in-law suite is the most common answer, and it works best when accessibility is built in from the start rather than added during a second renovation. Our complete in-law suite guide covers layouts, attached versus detached options, and the planning questions worth answering early.
Flexible rooms do the same work. A main-level room that serves as an office today can become a bedroom later. A full bath near it makes that transition possible. Building the flexibility in now costs far less than reconfiguring later.
Planning the Work in Phases
Very few households take all of this on at once, and there is no need to. Sequencing is what separates a smart phased plan from a series of disconnected projects. Getting the order right often does more for a budget than any single line item.
Start with the structural items, because those are the hardest to change: door widths, hallway clearances, entry grading, blocking in bathroom walls, and stacked closets for a future shaft. Finishes and fixtures can follow whenever budget allows.
This is the thinking behind a Home for Life plan, which maps what a home needs now against what it will likely need in ten or twenty years. The plan makes each individual project smarter, since nothing gets built that has to be torn out later.
How Glickman Approaches Universal Design
Glickman Design Build has been working in accessible and universal design for nearly five decades, well before the term became common in residential remodeling. Our team includes Certified Aging-in-Place Specialists and Universal Design Certified Professionals.
Because we design and build under one roof, the accessibility decisions and the construction decisions get made together. That avoids the common problem of a beautiful plan that cannot be framed the way it was drawn. Our design-build process explains how the phases work.
Every project starts with how you actually live in the house, room by room. From there we identify what should change now, what should be planned for, and what can wait.
If you are weighing a remodel and want the result to work for everyone in the household, we would be glad to talk it through. Contact our team to schedule a consultation and see what universal design could look like in your home.
Frequently Asked Questions
Universal design is an approach to designing homes so that people of all ages, sizes, and abilities can use them comfortably, without needing special adaptations. It covers entries, doorways, bathrooms, kitchens, lighting, and controls.
Accessible design addresses a specific person’s known needs, often following an injury, a diagnosis, or a mobility change. Universal design builds in usability for everyone from the start, whether or not anyone in the household currently needs it.
No. Wider doorways, better lighting, lever handles, and step-free entries help young children, pregnant family members, anyone carrying groceries, and guests of any age. Older adults benefit, but they are not the only ones.
Many features cost little or nothing extra when they are planned into a project already underway, since they involve choosing one fixture or layout over another. Costs rise when features are retrofitted later, because that usually means reopening walls, floors, or framing.
Yes. Older homes throughout Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, D.C. are regularly updated this way. The approach depends on the house type, since a colonial, a split-level, and a townhouse each present different constraints.
Yes. Older homes throughout Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington, D.C. are regularly updated this way. The approach depends on the house type, since a colonial, a split-level, and a townhouse each present different constraints.