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Universal Access Design Benefits All

When we buy or build a house, most of us never consider the difficulties of growing old in it, and we never pause to ask, What happens if I become disabled? To the elderly and the disabled, seemingly simple tasks like bathing, entering the front door, or getting a box of cereal from a cupboard can become daily challenges in a poorly designed home.

Universal access design, also known variously as barrier-free design, open-concept accessibility, and handicap accessible design, seeks to remove the barriers that impede us in our own homes, making them safer and more accessible to all. “If builders would build their homes to these standards, it would help so many people,” said Nancy Conklin of the Center for Independence. Randy Stringer of TML Enterprises, a construction-contracting firm that has built at least twenty handicap accessible homes, agrees. “If I were building my own home right now, I would build it with universal access features. Open-concept accessibility greatly increases the functionality of a home. This could be important for my future. If I live there till I die, I’ll need it, and if I ever sell, the house becomes more sellable. I won’t be marketing just to twenty- and thirty-year-old people, but to people aged twenty-three to one-hundred-and-three.”

Most of us would never recognize universal access features as anything other than convenient and attractive if we saw them. Many homes built today feature some of them as part of the standard package: open-concept living rooms and kitchens, walk-in showers with grab bars, rocker light switches, higher electrical outlets, lever door-knobs, three-foot wide doors, four-foot wide hallways, and roll-out cabinet trays in the kitchen. Perhaps your newer home has some of these features already. If not, perhaps it should.

Sally and Randy Stout live in such a home today. Sally Stout has multiple sclerosis and uses a power wheelchair to move about her custom-built home. “This house has just been a real blessing for us,” she said. “My last house was a trap for us. I couldn’t turn in the hallway. I couldn’t even close the bathroom door behind me.” The universal access features she and her husband had designed into their new home make life more comfortable for both them and their children, while giving the house a wide, airy feeling. The open-concept kitchen and living room, separated only by a breakfast bar, and the wide hallways and doorways open up the house and remove the sense of confinement endemic to so many home designs.

“The little things can be so important.” Said Vicki Upson of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. “Like doorknobs.” She continued, “Barriers can be different things for different persons, and when you build a home you have to try to accommodate those needs. For example, you need to have at least one stairless entry in every home.”

Added Upson, “The rooms that are really important are the kitchen, the bathroom, and the bedroom.” Bedrooms should be close to an exit in case of fire, and both kitchens and bathrooms should be made as safe as possible with such simple features as front-control ranges to minimize burn accidents and grab bars in the shower to reduce falls. Said Stringer, “We don’t even build homes with a tub in the master bath unless the owner requests it. Walk-in showers are easier to enter and much safer for everyone.”

According to Conklin, universal access features add anywhere from one to ten percent to the building cost of a house, depending on the type, quality, and amount of features added to the house design, but estimates vary. “Well, it depends on what you’re doing,” said Stringer, “but it can add twelve to sixteen percent to the construction cost. You can do it for less if you are selective. For example, a custom-made tile roll-in shower is going to cost more than a pre-fabricated fiberglass walk-in shower; it just depends on your needs and how top-of the line you want to go.” Stringer added that for most homebuyers, it is more cost-effective to build a new universal access home than to remodel an existing house.

Is Universal Access Design worth the additional cost? “We are an aging population,” said Upson. “I think that if we are to accommodate the baby boomer population that’s getting into their fifties and sixties now, we need to start thinking about universal design always. It’s good for everyone.” Indeed it is.

For more information, contact the Center for Independence at 241-0315; the National Multiple Sclerosis Society at 241-9329; and TML Enterprises at 245-9271.