Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet) is Norway’s third largest university and is unique in a national context due to its wide range of professional programs and a strong focus on social welfare and value creation in Norway and Europe. OsloMet is already a leading institution in areas such as health, welfare, education, youth, and unemployment. In its overarching research strategy, OsloMet highlights both interdisciplinary, regional and international cooperation. The university creates value for society by developing knowledge that contributes to improved social welfare. This research provides insights into the activities, frameworks, and conditions of sectors and occupational fields in a society that is continually changing. The Faculty of Technology, Art and Design conducts research in a number of areas that are closely related to universal design and sustainable development. These programs qualify graduates for work in multi-professional teams as innovators and entrepreneurs that can develop technology that is sustainable and socially responsible. The Faculty offers a Master program in Universal Design of information and communications technology as well as a Ph.D. program in Digital Engineering. The Faculty works in close collaboration with the public and private sector, including Norwegian regional governments, business and industry and national and international research institutions, to support the implementation of universal design of ICT law, policy, and practice. The research that forms the basis of this nomination emerged from a Masters thesis project led by Rannveig A. Skjerve. As a research project, the principal audience is academics and academic institutions. However, as an action research project, Skjerve's results provide a unique opportunity to inform both public policy and ICT industry practices. For example, Skjerve has made a substantive contribution to the EQUALS inaugural report titled "Taking stock: Data and evidence on gender equality in digital access, skills and leadership".

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• Africa
• Western Europe and North America

• Women

This work has served the basis for a large-scale research grant to the Norwegian Research Council titled, "IRIS-UD: Investigating the Relationship between Innovation, Sustainable Development and Universal Design as Mechanisms for Promoting Social Equality and Access to Education". The grant aims to, among other things, model the relationship between universal design principles and sustainable development practices using intersectional accessibility as a theoretical and practical point of departure. IRIS-UD focuses specifically on the inclusion and substantive participation of disadvantaged communities, including persons with disabilities, in sustainable development policy and program design and implementation. The UN has published a position paper, endorsed by 312 organizations representing persons with disabilities, that calls for governments to actively include persons with disabilities, as experts, in implementing measures to achieve the SDGs. This research has provided a framework for synthesizing methods and theories from human rights law and policy, sociology and political science to co-construct a grounded theory model of universal design for sustainable development based on multiple qualitative data sources. The principal taks include the collection of national and international law and policy documents focused on universal design and sustainable development from the UN, European Union, Norway, Mozambique, Uganda and select other countries. In addition, 18 to 27 elite in-depth qualitative interviews with policy actors in the Norwegian, Mozambican, and Ugandan governments, civil society organizations, and ICT industry will be conducted and this data will provide a basis for posing a new model of universal design for sustainable development.

IRIS-UD focuses specifically on the inclusion and substantive participation of disadvantaged communities, including persons with disabilities, in sustainable development policy and program design and implementation.

Access • Accessibility • ICTs for all • Gender • ICTs for all • Disadvantaged and vulnerable groups