How can we "design for all" if we do not know who is designed out and why?

This paper describes our novel approach to supporting the ‘design for all’ philosophy of design. Our approach has been to create a database of individual people, in terms of their 3D anthropometry and functional abilities. Datasets for individuals are kept intact, a radical departure from the traditional approach which involves effectively ‘dismembering’ people to create tables of percentiles for every dimension of interest. This database is accessed by HADRIAN, our CAD based design tool, so that proposed designs of products or services can be automatically evaluated for each individual, based upon criteria set by the designer (e.g. access, reach, vision, mobility and strength). The tool can identify which individuals will be ‘designed out’ and can support the designer in modifying the proposed design to achieve a greater percentage of people accommodated.