By Karin Bendixen

The Commitment applies to the Company, not the Product, says the Label’s initiator Francesc Aragall

The Design for All Commitment Label is not a quality mark issued by an authority: any company, administration or NGOs that wants to use it must implement the philosophy of Design for All actively and visibly throughout its entire organisation.
‘The Commitment Label is a way of involving the private sector and committing it to adapt environments, products and services to users' capabilities, needs and expectations. It is also a method, a management tool, that shows companies that there are other ways of increasing their markets and profits,’ states Francesc Aragall, ergonomist and General Manager of ProAsolutions, an accessibility and Design for All consultancy in Barcelona. He is the inventor of the label and also the President of EIDD, The European Institute for Design and Disability.

Company Diagnosis

‘Making Design for All products is not enough: the entire company has to implement the Design for All philosophy at every level of its organisation, to ensure that everyone can use its services and environments, as well as its end-products. Involvement is the key issue. The commitment applies to the company, not the product: that is the whole idea,' stresses Aragall.

Adherents can use a questionnaire, ‘The Current Situation Diagnosis', drawn up by ProASolutions, to establish whether all their departments are or will be influenced by Design for All policy and which actions they have to take. ‘The Current Situation Diagnosis’ includes questions about such topics as management, internal organisation, planning and improving human resources, respect for diversity, planning HR training, the physical and social environment and policies applied to suppliers and end-users, including user participation in the design of products and services.

Commitment

The result of the "The Current Situation Diagnosis" enables each company, administration and NGO to start drafting a three-year implementation plan, including action to be taken within the first year. As part of this plan, the company must appoint a Design for All Co-ordinator, who is responsible for its implementation and follow-up.

Companies participating in the Design for All Commitment Label process become members of the Design for all Foundation, to which they pay a fee. This fee enables them to source services from an external consultancy with experience in the Design for All field and entitles them to use the accredited plaque of the Design for All Commitment Label.

"But if companies do not live up to the plans and intentions they state, they risk losing their right to the Design for All Commitment Label," specifies Aragall.

Pilot Groups

The first pilot scheme was initiated in Spain in 1998, involving 25 local and international companies representing various fields, such as design, transport, telecommunications and street furniture. The positive reception reserved for the Design for All Commitment Label among the participating companies paved the way for growing interest from other quarters: the government of Spain’s south-western region of Extremadura is only one authority that has allocated funds for companies wishing to integrate Design for All into their activities.

"The companies in the pilot group meet for annual audits, where they report on progress made to date in implementing and improving their plan for both products and processes in order to adapt them to human diversity," says Francesc Aragall, whose consultancy firm is also a member of the Spanish Commitment Label pilot group.

Another pilot group is being developed in Finland, involving 11 companies from different fields. Working in contact with the Spanish group, they held their first workshop in Barcelona in October.

Published in Crisp & Clear No. 4, December 2000