Samhwa Paint Develops Color Universal Design Guide for Facilities for People with Developmental Disabilities

Completion of First Application at Giwon Daycare Center for Developmental Disabilities... Plans to Expand to Educational Institutions

A program room in a developmental disability facility applying Color Universal Design.
[Photo by Samhwa Paint]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] Samhwa Paint Industrial Co., Ltd. has completed the development of a Color Universal Design (CUD) guide for facilities for people with developmental disabilities and applied it to facilities used by people with developmental disabilities.

Color Universal Design refers to designing colors with consideration for people with various disabilities and color vision differences so that products, architecture, and services can be used safely and conveniently regardless of gender, age, or disability.

In May, Samhwa Paint signed a business agreement with the Korea Color Universal Design Association focused on research and development of Color Universal Design for living spaces for people with developmental disabilities. Over approximately six months, they conducted color research and developed a color guide tailored to the perspective of users (people with disabilities) for applying CUD to spaces for people with developmental disabilities.

Subsequently, they participated in the space welfare support project of the social welfare corporation Warm Companion and selected Giwon Daycare Center (Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul) as the first beneficiary institution of developmental disability CUD. The Giwon Daycare Center, where about 12 people with developmental disabilities live, had separated spaces such as a dining room, program room, and fitness room, but no color planning suited to the purpose had been implemented.

Samhwa Paint and the Korea Color Universal Design Association conducted brainwave and autonomic nervous system tests on users of the Giwon Daycare Center to understand the effects of color play and behavioral psychology, and analyzed results related to emotion, self-regulation, stress, brain balance, and basic rhythm index before and after applying CUD. Based on this survey and overseas research cases, they completed the CUD guide for developmental disability facilities and applied colors to living spaces and corridors. After the environmental improvements, survey results showed that users expressed high satisfaction with emotional stability, safety, and convenience.

A Samhwa Paint official said, "By applying CUD to spaces for people with developmental disabilities, safety and convenience in space use can be enhanced, and psychological stability and positive behavioral changes can be expected." He added, "Next year, we are preparing color development for special classes for students with developmental disabilities and will continue to expand Color Universal Design for color welfare."

Since 2016, Samhwa Paint has been developing Color Universal Design for the elderly and disabled with weak vision, color recognition ability, and visual field, and has been conducting social contribution activities to improve spaces in elderly welfare facilities and schools for the visually impaired.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.