Better Homes & Garden Home Feature

Hello! I am so excited to announce that our accessible home is featured in the March 2022 issue of Better Homes & Garden magazine. This is both an honor and a responsibility that I took seriously in wanting to raise awareness about accessibility in general, but especially in our homes. Ideally, accessible homes that are as beautiful as they are functional.

I am excited to finally share the specifics of our home–and I will share even more on my blog in the coming weeks. However, what I really hope to accomplish with this feature is to simply raise awareness for the need to build more accessible homes. Not only for disabled people but for EVERYONE. Why?

I’m so glad you asked. Universal design is another term used when thinking about accessibility. And the idea is that when you design for people with the least amount of mobility and/or autonomy–in other words, for people with disabilities–it benefits everyone. Thus the design is universally accessible and universally beneficial.

This idea is best illustrated with what is often referred to as the curb cut effect. Curb cuts are the ramps found at the end of sidewalks that make it possible for wheelchair users to cross the street. And while the first curb cuts were implemented in the 1970’s they didn’t become commonplace until the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) was passed in 1990.

Most people probably don’t even know that the ramps at the corner of their neighborhood sidewalks are there because of the disability community! But it’s not just the disability community that benefits from having curb cuts–Caregivers pushing strollers, delivery people using a dolly, kids on bikes or roller skates, elderly people who may have a hard time navigating steps and the more. Everyone benefits from accessible design.

Likewise if more builders and new-build home owners would implement universal design into their home plan, everyone would benefit in ways we can’t currently imagine.

Before the interview with Better Homes & Garden I spoke with some members of the National Council for Independent Living, whose mission is to advance independent living and the rights of people with disabilities. (You can look up your local Center for Independent Living, or CIL here).

While they have many different programs and ways to offer support to the disability community (you can watch this video from a CIL in Arizona that explains a little bit more about their mission) I wanted to speak with them specifically about one of their offshoots, Visitability.org.

According to their website, “Visitability is a movement to change home construction practices so that virtually all new homes — not merely those custom-built for occupants who currently have disabilities — offer a few specific features making the home easier for mobility-impaired people to live in and visit.”

A home is considered “visitable” if you meet these three basic requirements:

1. One zero-step entrance.
2. Doors with at least 32″ of clearance space (32″-36″)
3. One bathroom on the main floor that is large enough to comfortably fit a wheelchair

And if you wanted to make sure your home was even more accessible, you could add the following two items to your list:

1. Electrical outlets no lower than 15″ off the floor. (Didn’t know this when we renovated our home!)
2. At least one bedroom on the main floor.

Visitable is another way of saying accessible. Here are some other really amazing reasons to create more visitable/accessible homes!

Sustainability
People move out of a home on average every 7 years. If your home is visitable you can market to 100% of the population. Additionally, for people who want to stay in their homes as they age, (80% of Americans over 50 do want to stay in their current home) their home will be safe and comfortable for them, especially if they acquire the use of a wheelchair or any other accessible equipment down the line. Statistically the chances of acquiring a disability either short term or long term are quite high, and having a home that is accessible will only be a benefit.

Cost Effective
If home builders were to include the 3 principles of Visitability from the beginning, the average additional cost is $600. That’s right, six hundred dollars. However, should you ever need to make your home accessible down the road you’re looking at tens of thousands of dollars in renovation costs. Building accessible homes is the fiscally responsible thing to do.

Need
There is a huge shortage of visitable/accessible homes on the market. I have often said that accessible homes just don’t exist in the wild. According to this 2020 article, “just 9 percent of households with someone who has a physical disability are living in an accessible home. Although more than 15 percent of U.S. households include somebody with a physical disability, only 6 percent of homes nationwide are accessible.” Again, if people move an average of every 7 years it makes so much sense to build accessibility into your home from the beginning as you never know who might buy it after you!

Inclusion
One of the things that has come into sharper focus in recent years is how few homes our daughter can visit in her wheelchair outside of our own home. When she was younger we just carried her inside, or brought her super lightweight custom made wheelchair with us–that is no longer an option. Yes she still goes into people’s homes, but she usually can’t bring her chair and then must scoot around on the ground. She will not be OK with that option forever. (Much longer?) Additionally, I’ve heard many stories from disabled adults about how much their social life started to close in around them starting in their teen years. Too many homes they couldn’t enter independently and too many people not thinking about their lack of access. I believe this is one of the main reasons for the entire concept of Visitability–the idea that anyone can visit your home at anytime, including aging grandparents and friends or families with disabilities.

I’m excited to share more about our home in the next few weeks and hopefully to continue to expand upon the importance of accessibility. In the meantime, grab a copy of Better Homes & Garden and check out the 7 page spread!