Universal design for building an inclusive society in Thailand : community-based social marketing

Abstract

World population is changing to become an aging society in regions such as Europe and North America. Thailand too is becoming an aging society. The data from the national statistics office forecasts that in the next 10 years Thailand will become a complete aging society. It is time to address this situation, which not only concerns the income or health of the elderly, but also about how they can live comfortably in an aging society. Universal design principles could help them to live better. It can aid accessibility to all places and allow them to use facilities safely, and aid their participation in their communities.

Normally we are concerned with issues that affect the economy and their impact on the environment, but now the population structure has changed. We should consider how to improve living conditions for all people in the society. Architects and students in architecture are the key persons to design such improvements and encourage the owners or developers to be concerned about equal living conditions by promoting Universal design to create designs for all.

This research began with interviews with the campaigner who had direct responsibility for creating each project to understand its objective, the process of universal design, and evaluate the outcome. Moreover the campaigner is the key person who had direct contact with the community to gather information from usersthat is, the elderly and persons with disabilities-from the beginning until the end of the project.

The Community- Based Social Marketing tools utilized to change behavior in this research were the use of communication and incentives. Communication in Community- Based Social Marketing has the same characteristic as promotion in social commercial marketing. The incentives used in Community-Based Social Marketing are also the same as in social and commercial marketing based on price. Tools are tactics used to remove barriers in Community- Based Social Marketing in areas such as communication, commitment, incentive, and norms.

The best way to remove knowledge barriers about universal design in community renovations was found to be communication. These let target groups have a better understanding of universal design concepts. The target groups were architecture students and users (this includes related persons such as family members and those living in the same community). Specialists were spokespersons who helped students to better understand universal design concepts in practice. The change agent was the person who was involved with the user to understand the physical environment.

Finally, the outcome of this project only impacted behavior change in a small number of people. In future, universal design should also be allowed to influence policy. Policy makers and relevant government agencies need to become part of future projects for universal design concepts to have a long term impact.