Universal design is a design practice that is generally considered to be a design that has gone through all the design processes while hoping to take everyone into consideration. You just would have to design it in a way that everyone can use it. The *problem* with the approach of universal design is, though, that *you cannot really design for everyone*.
To design with 8 billion people in mind is strictly impossible: a design that is utopian or more academic or more a discourse subject rather than something that we can really and truly design. But you can do *inclusive design* as a part of design practices that strive for inclusion. The difference is that inclusive design is the umbrella above,
for example, accessible design because accessibility is an accommodation. It is checking boxes whether your design is truly accessible. And if it serves the purpose for your audiences. Inclusive design is the same umbrella. Universal design is more of a juxtaposition, but it's more battling against inclusive design because if you think of everyone, you think of no one.
And in this inclusive way, we can look towards architecture, we can look towards city planning and also how buildings are built in the past decades because they have taken aboard the inclusive approach. They do all the accommodations they can think of – for example, no stairs, ride towards those who have to take a wheelchair. Or it could be beneficial to people with a trolley or with something heavy that they have to carry.
So, thinking of this benefits everyone. And now imagine the internet being a public space, and how we can learn from city planning and architecture and interior design, that we are *accommodating those who need accommodation*. And that's what the inclusive approach is about. So, to sum this up, your research cannot be universal, because you cannot serve that, but it can be personalized and it can be also tailored to the needs of the audience you are serving.