Greetings

Five years have passed since the outbreak of COVID-19. The temperature measuring devices at the building entrance have mostly been removed, but disinfectants are still left in some places. Medical specialists recommend wearing masks against flu and COVID-19 in congested areas, at least during the winter season (large hospitals require people to wear masks, as they receive a variety of patients susceptible to infections). It is still difficult to conduct various activities, and IAUD is no exception. I would like to report on IAUD's activities in 2024 under these circumstances.

With Japanese and overseas experts to serve as judges, the IAUD International Design Award judgement was conducted as before. Results will be published soon.

Since the UD certification is now online, both the beginner and intermediate level tests are progressing smoothly. We are yet considering how advanced level can be certified.

A new initiative, an international UD course run by the International for Institute for Universal Design, started in 2023 was successfully concluded. For the second year, we tried to include overseas lecturers as well as overseas postgraduate students. However, due to lack of publicity to start the course, we decided to delay the opening of the course until April 2025. We are still trying to figure out how to conduct the UD course exercises to have the greatest effect on society.

We are pursuing possibilities for our next international UD conference, but unfortunately, no plan is on the horizon at the moment. We are well aware that short notice is inconvenient for you all, and we will do our best to let you know as soon as the plan is available.

To sum up, we will do everything we can to step further. With the advice, cooperation, and support of our members, we strive to move forward.

IAUD Chairperson of the Board of Directors,
Satoshi Kose