Building for Everyone
Building for Everyone: A Universal Design Approach.
Building for Everyone is the National Disability Authority's ten-booklet best practice guide to universal design of buildings and external spaces in Ireland. Booklet 4 contains its main guidance on signage and information; Booklet 1 covers external and car park signage.
For signage and wayfinding
What it asks of your signs
- 01Booklet 4, Internal Environment and Services, section 4.11 Signage and Information, is the core reference: typeface and lettering, symbols and arrows, letter size, tactile signs and braille, tactile maps, contrast, safety signs, positioning and audible information.
- 02Booklet 1, External Environment, covers car park signage and the lighting and signage of external routes.
- 03It goes beyond Part M minimums, so it is the document to cite when an Irish client asks for best practice rather than compliance.
- 04Some dimensional guidance is based on BS 8300:2009. Check figures against BS 8300-2:2018 or I.S. EN 17210 on current schemes.
- 05For housing, the NDA now points to its Universal Design Guidelines for Homes in Ireland instead of the housing section in Booklet 7.
What it is
Building for Everyone gives best practice guidance on designing, building and managing buildings and spaces so that they can be readily accessed and used by everyone, regardless of age, size, ability or disability. It was produced by the NDA's Centre for Excellence in Universal Design, which has a statutory role in promoting universal design in Ireland, and is free to download as accessible PDFs.
The ten booklets are: 1 External Environment, 2 Entrances and Horizontal Circulation, 3 Vertical Circulation, 4 Internal Environment and Services, 5 Sanitary Facilities, 6 Facilities, 7 Building Types, 8 Building Management, 9 Planning, and 10 Index and Terminology.
Signage and wayfinding
Section 4.11 of Booklet 4 is one of the most complete free treatments of accessible signage published for Ireland. It covers what signs say and how they say it, symbol and arrow use, letter and symbol size against viewing distance, tactile signs and braille, tactile maps and models, surface finishes and visual contrast, safety signs, location and positioning, and audible information. Booklet 4 also covers signage for hearing enhancement systems.
Booklet 1 deals with the approach: car park signage and the lighting and signage of external routes.
Status and how it fits
The series was written to be compatible with Part M (2010) of the Building Regulations and its Technical Guidance Document. TGD M is the statutory guidance; Building for Everyone is the NDA's best practice layer above it. The NDA notes two parts that have been superseded: the housing section 7.12 in Booklet 7, replaced by the Universal Design Guidelines for Homes in Ireland, and section 5.6.2 in Booklet 5, replaced by its Changing Places toilet guidelines.
The booklets are NDA copyright under the Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000, so we link to the NDA rather than republishing them.
Editions and history
Published as a ten-booklet series in 2012. The NDA has since superseded section 7.12 (housing) and section 5.6.2 (changing places toilets) with separate guidelines.
Sources checked
- universaldesign.ie/built-environment/building-for-everyone
- universaldesign.ie/uploads/publications/4-Internal-Environment-and-Services_2024-09-23-155441_mmxc.pdf
- universaldesign.ie/uploads/publications/1-External-Environment_2024-09-23-141902_rowt.pdf
- universaldesign.ie/about/copyrights
- theaccessofficer.n-somerset.gov.uk/2018/07/20/building-for-everyone
A summary in our own words, checked on 16 October 2026. It is not the document itself and not legal advice.
Equivalents and related
The same ground, elsewhere.
- Building Regulations Technical Guidance Document M: Access and Use (2022)Ireland
- Accessibility and usability of the built environment. Functional requirementsUK & Ireland
- Design of an accessible and inclusive built environment. Buildings. Code of practiceUK
- Design of an accessible and inclusive built environment. External environment. Code of practiceUK
- Universal Design Guidelines for Homes in IrelandIreland
- Universal Design Guidelines: Dementia Friendly Dwellings for People with Dementia, their Families and CarersIreland
- Disability Act 2005 (Ireland), Part 3: Access to buildings and servicesIreland
- Inclusive Mobility: A Guide to Best Practice on Access to Pedestrian and Transport InfrastructureEngland
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More in Universal design
Working to Building for Everyone on a live project?
Wayfinding design, compliance, manufacture and installation, with the signage certificates signed off by us.