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To receive the "Universal Accessibility" point, the builder includes, in at least 20% of the single-family homes, the features required by federal law in apartment buildings:

a zero step entrance on an accessible route
wide interior doors, maneuvering space in bathrooms and kitchens
blocking in bathroom walls to allow future grab bars
reachable electrical controls, and
a step-free path of travel through the first floor of the home.

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A GUIDE TO UNIVERSAL DESIGN

LEED-ND awards a point for developments that build single-family homes with basic access.

Visitability is connected to green building practices. Basic access at the time of construction decreases the waste of energy and materials necessitated by retrofits, and makes neighborhoods more sustainable by enabling social interaction, "aging in place," and disability inclusion.

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The LEED-ND application document reads, in part,: "Enable the widest spectrum of people, regardless of age or ability, to more easily participate in their community life by increasing the proportion of areas that are usable by people of diverse abilities."

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The LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System integrates the principles of smart growth, urbanism and green building into the first national system for neighborhood design.

LEED certification provides independent, third-party verification that a development's location and design meet accepted high levels of environmentally responsible, sustainable development.

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A GUIDE TO UNIVERSAL DESIGN

Features also provide a basic shell of access to permit formerly non-disabled people to remain in homes if they develop a disability, rather than:
forcing them to do expensive renovations
relocate to a different house
live in an inaccessible home which endangers their health and safety, or
move from the community into a nursing home.

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Although visitability allows for people with disabilities to access the homes of their nondisabled peers, it’s not the only way for people with disabilities to integrate into the built environment.

People with disabilities frequently share common ground with those who advocate the dense, pedestrian-oriented, mixed-use developments that are the hallmark of New Urbanism. Auto-dependant urban sprawl creates a struggle for those with mobility and other disabilities.

However, when many New Urbanist developments are built, their housing is inaccessible as well. This is seemingly contradictory to the diverse intergenerational community that is the hallmark of the New Urbanism.

To its credit, the Congress for the New Urbanism has agreed to endorse a visitability agenda to make New Urbanist housing accessible.

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Visitability features make homes easier for people who develop a mobility impairment to visit friends and extended family rather than having to turn down invitations, or not be invited at all.

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Visitability does not ensure complete residence accessibility but access to principal spaces in a building — the entrance, entry-level floor, and washroom facilities to people with mobility issues. Other accessible features, such as a roll-in shower or accessible kitchen features, are typically not requirements contained in visitability laws.

People undergoing physical rehabilitation from injury or illness can return home earlier, continuing their rehabilitation on an outpatient basis.

Designing for visitability is also convenient to people without disabilities who are using strollers or carriages, or moving furniture in and out of a home. Smaller people and children benefit from accessible light switches and climate controls.

Housing units with visitability features are usually indistinguishable from those without such features.

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A GUIDE TO UNIVERSAL DESIGN

Legislation that calls for designing and constructing built environments sensitive to people with disabilities:

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 requires "accessibility to places of public accommodation and commercial facilities by individuals with disabilities.”
The Fair Housing Act Amendments passed in 1988 require all new or substantially rehabilitated multifamily housing (i.e., housing with four or more units) to be built with accessible features (i.e., accessible entrances, doors, corridors, reinforced bathroom walls, usable kitchens and bathroom, and accessible climate controls).

These laws require accessible features in public places and multifamily housing units, but not the single-family home. Sixty-nine percent of all housing units in the United States are single-family homes.

These means that many Americans are living in homes not designed for people with disabilities. The increasing number of people with disabilities brought on by the increase in the number of seniors will only serve to exacerbate this situation.

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Study conducted by
the American Association of Retired Persons


Ninety percent of people ages 65 and over want to continue living in their current residence as long as possible.

There are more than one million households with a resident over the age of 65 with a disability in accommodations that lack accessible features.

People with disabilities who live in accessible homes (or retirement facilities or similar residences) still need to access the homes of their relatives, friends and neighbors.

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A GUIDE TO UNIVERSAL DESIGN

Standard Visitability Access Features

• At least one zero-step entrance on an accessible route leading from a driveway or public sidewalk;

• All interior doors providing at least 31 ¾ inches (81 cm) of unobstructed passage space; and

• At least a half bathroom on the main floor.

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VISITABILITY

An international movement to change home construction practices so that new homes offer three specific accessibility features.

Similar to Universal Design in general intention, but more focused in scope, more specific in parameters, and more explicitly grounded in social reform intent.

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“We shape our dwellings…and later our dwellings shape us.”

- Winston Churchill

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The current generation of children, baby boomers entering middle age, older adults, people with disabilities, and individuals inconvenienced by circumstance, constitute a market majority.

All of these constituencies and indeed, all consumers, deserve to be recognized and respected. Facilities, devices, services, and programs must be designed to serve an increasingly diverse clientele.

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Faucets that can be used without tight grasping, pinching or twisting of the wrist are easier to use for everyone, and can be aesthetically beautiful.

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A GUIDE TO UNIVERSAL DESIGN

Universal design strives to integrate people with disabilities into the mainstream and assistive technology attempts to meet the specific needs of individuals, but the two fields intersect in a gray zone in which products and environments are not clearly "universal" or "assistive," but have characteristics of each.

Some products have enjoyed crossover success, starting as assistive devices and becoming mainstream products, such as the kitchen utensils with thick grips popularized by Oxo International in their "Good Grips" line.

A few products have moved the other way, conceived as high-tech devices for small markets that find new application in the rehabilitation arena, such as voice recognition software.

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PRODUCT EXAMPLES

• Lever-style door handles that aid people with hand limitations as well as someone carrying bags of groceries

• Curb cuts or sidewalk ramps, essential for people in wheelchairs, but also used by parents pushing strollers

• Use of icons or symbols with text labels that benefit people with cognitive impairments & speakers of other languages

• Closed captioning on television networks for people who are deaf or hard of hearing

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PRINCIPLES of UNIVERSAL DESIGN

• Equitable use
• Flexibility in use
• Simple and intuitive
• Perceptible information
• Tolerance for error (design that enables a system to continue operation, possibly at a reduced level rather than failing completely, when some part of the system fails.)
• Low physical effort
• Size and space for approach and use

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Demographic changes result in a population that is older and more disabled than many realize.

Limitations imposed by products and environments designed and built without regard to the needs and rights of all American citizens are significant.

Public acknowledgment of people with disabilities and progress toward universal design has developed in the last few decades along three parallel tracks:
(1) legislation fueled by the disability rights movement;
(2) barrier-free design to universal design movement; and
(3) advances in rehabilitation engineering and assistive technology.

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At the start of the 20th century, older adults and people with disabilities were true minorities. The average human lifespan was only 47 years, and people with spinal cord injuries had only a 10% chance of survival.

People are living longer today and more people are now living with disability. The average lifespan has increased to 76, largely due to healthier living, better medicine, vaccines and sanitation. Nearly 80% of the population now lives past the age of 65.