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Universal design is a concept of making public and private accessible to all, regardless of a person's degree of mobility. In the public sector, this has led to adding ramps on buildings, cut off curbs, handicap bathroom stalls, and dual level drinking fountains. In private home design, this means incorporating features that make a home easy to use for all occupants of the home. It is an aid to aging in place and to making a home usable for a person with temporary or permanent mobility issues. What is Universal Design? The concept of universal design, which is also called Inclusive Design, Design for All, or Lifespan Design, has been researched around the world since the 1940s, but it was not until the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) that it became a public mandate in the United States. There are seven principles incorporated in universal design to ensure: 1. Ease-of-use for all 2. Flexibility of use 3. Intuitive design 4. Easy to interpret instructions 5. Safety 6. Low physical effort 7. Accessibility Building or Adapting a Home for Universal Design Incorporating universal design principles into the design of a new home is quite easy, but can be challenging during a renovation. Home builders and renovation companies who modify homes to make them more accessible often have designations such as Certified Aging in Place Specialist (CAPS), available from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). Accessible homes include some or all of these features: • Basic access, without steps required to enter the living area, or with ramps to accommodate entry and exit. • Wider doorways, hallways, and alcoves to comfortably accommodate wheelchair passage and turnaround. • Stable slip resistant flooring that offers traction for unsteady occupants, while being attractive, safe, and easy to clean. • Levers to open doors, rather than twist knobs, a difficult motion for many with arthritis. • Main floor bath, bedroom, and laundry facilities. • Closets equipped with pocket doors and low reach closet racks, bars, and cubbies. • Easy to use bathroom facilities with grab bars in the bath or shower and around the toilet, as well as higher seated toilets, walk-in bathtubs and easy to access separate showers with no steps and large benches. • Multilevel counters in the kitchen, set at different levels to accommodate those who were standing or sitting to prepare food. • Easy to access lighting, with outlets placed higher on the wall and flat light switches that turn on and off with a rocking motion rather than with a toggle switch. Undertaking Smart Modifications When modifying a home to meet the needs of residents with mobility issues, adding some types of ramps, adding grab bars in bathrooms, modifying lighting, and improving closet access can be easy fixes for a licensed contractor, and sometimes even for a handyman or savvy homeowner who follows CAPS specs. For homes that have facilities on upper floors and difficult access, they can be made more user-friendly with products such as stairlifts, lift chairs, vertical platform lifts, and even vehicle lifts for transporting mobility scooters and power wheelchairs. If you have decided to stay in your home as your mobility declines or if you are helping a relative assess whether to stay in their residence, make sure to consult with a CAPS contractor who can install improvements that meet the criteria for universal design.
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