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Visitability is the design approach for new housing such that anyone who uses a wheelchair or other mobility device should be able to visit. A social visit requires the ability to get into the house, to pass through interior doorways, and enter a bathroom to use the toilet. Visitability stresses specific accessibility features from a social reform perspective, and counters social isolation.
Newly constructed homes often contain the same major barriers as older ones: steps at every entrance and narrow interior doors, with the bathroom door usually the narrowest one in the house. Supporters want to change construction practices so that virtually all new homes, whether or not designated for people with mobility impairments, offer three specific accessibility features that will make it possible for most people to visit:
These features are designed around the needs of a person using a wheelchair while visiting, but they are also helpful to people with other kinds of mobility impairments. Temporary disabilities could create a need; for example, a resident could break a leg and require a wheelchair, walker or other mobility device for an extended period.
Visitability features make homes easier for people who develop a mobility impairment to visit friends and extended family. The consequence of not having a visitable home is usually having to turn down invitations, or not be invited at all.
These features also provide a basic shell of access to permit newly disabled people to remain in their homes, rather than forcing them to do expensive renovations, relocate to a different house, live in an inaccessible home that endangers their health and safety, or move into a nursing home.
Basic access goes beyond visiting. It also helps a person of any age who develops a temporary or permanent mobility impairment. Without basic access in place, architecture forces severe choices:
These issues can apply equally to a person who is recovering from surgery, or to a person who has used a wheelchair for decades.
Zero-step entrances on new homes are nearly always easy to construct, whether the terrain is flat or hilly. The entrance can be constructed at the front, side or back, wherever is most feasible for the topography. A driveway or sidewalk can be a tool for access to the best entrance. Porches and decks can be used to incorporate access, often in a manner that is not as obvious as many ramps. The key to accessibility is including access in the planning stage.
On new construction, a zero-step entrance can usually be incorporated without an obvious "ramp" per se, i.e., without a structure that has 90-degree dropoffs at the edges and rails at the sides. In most cases, grading and landscaping can make a ramp unnecessary. Deliberately grading to permit the sidewalk to meet the porch without a step creates access with an invisible modification.
For the 40% of homes built with a slab-on-grade foundation, the zero-step entrance is typically extremely easy. The methods for homes are virtually identical to those used for slab-built commercial buildings such as banks and restaurants. For homes with basements or crawlspaces, several solutions can provide low-cost, attractive zero-step entrances. Among these are using a porch as a bridge to the sidewalk; lowering the first-floor rim joist into a notch in the foundation wall at the time of construction; a short, conventional ramp tied into a side or back deck or porch; creative use of a small retaining wall; and constructing the zero-step entrance from the garage.
Siting the home properly on the lot is the first step. Then grading and landscaping with access in mind makes creating a zero-step entrance quite easy.
In the United States, the Visitability movement was begun by grass roots advocates led by Eleanor Smith in an organization called Concrete Change. She originated and developed the concept in 1986, at that time using the term "Basic Home Access". In 1990, when US advocates learned that the term "visitability" was used in the United Kingdom (UK) for a similar concept, they adopted the term to emphasize that the goal is not the traditional "more homes for the disabled" but rather a change in standard homebuilding procedure.
The Atlanta chapter of Habitat for Humanity became the first organization to commit to going beyond accessibility in homes with disabled family members. By including these basic access features in every home built, their commitment contributes to an inclusive neighborhood for people with disabilities. Concrete Change continues to grow in number of participants and number of open-market houses built with the basic features.
In 2017 Eleanor Smith retired Concrete Change. The National Council on Independent Living has agreed to transition and maintain all her data from the Concrete Change website to a new website, www.visitability.org.
The UK has applied the most widespread legal application of the concept to date. In 1999, Parliament passed "section M", an amendment to residential building regulations requiring basic access in all new homes. [1]
Advocates maintain that the philosophical underpinning of visitability is as important as the list of features. They maintain that building homes with steps at all entrances and narrow interior doors is an unacceptable violation of human rights, given the harsh effects the barriers have on so many people's lives: physically unsafe living conditions, social isolation and forced institutionalization.
It is difficult to definitively track the adoption of visitability across the world. A combination of legal mandates, incentive programs, and voluntary programs exist. The term "visitability" is not used in all efforts. Other factors complicating the research include the lack of an organization assigned to monitor visitability ordinances, and ordinances and laws that often do not specify the agency responsible for implementation.
The AARP Public Policy Institute has produced a report – Increasing Home Access: Designing for Visitability. [5] Page 32 has a summary of US efforts.
In the United States, successful visitability legislation has been passed in many localities, including Atlanta, Georgia; Pima County, Arizona; Bolingbrook, Illinois; San Antonio, Texas; and the State of California. [6] As of June 2006, 46 state and local municipalities had a confirmed visitability program in place; while 25 of these programs are mandatory ordinances, the other 21 are voluntary initiatives (i.e. cash and tax incentives for builders and consumers, consumer awareness campaigns, and certification programs).
In addition, there are numerous efforts to establish visitability programs in other states, counties and cities across the country. The research identified another 30 initiatives currently underway. They range from organized groups of individuals with an expressed interest in beginning a visitability program to locations that are in the final stages of developing a program. [7]
The resource site [8] contains additional information, a visitability video and links to other visitability websites.
Assistive technology (AT) is a term for assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for people with disabilities and the elderly. Disabled people often have difficulty performing activities of daily living (ADLs) independently, or even with assistance. ADLs are self-care activities that include toileting, mobility (ambulation), eating, bathing, dressing, grooming, and personal device care. Assistive technology can ameliorate the effects of disabilities that limit the ability to perform ADLs. Assistive technology promotes greater independence by enabling people to perform tasks they were formerly unable to accomplish, or had great difficulty accomplishing, by providing enhancements to, or changing methods of interacting with, the technology needed to accomplish such tasks. For example, wheelchairs provide independent mobility for those who cannot walk, while assistive eating devices can enable people who cannot feed themselves to do so. Due to assistive technology, disabled people have an opportunity of a more positive and easygoing lifestyle, with an increase in "social participation," "security and control," and a greater chance to "reduce institutional costs without significantly increasing household expenses." In schools, assistive technology can be critical in allowing students with disabilities access the general education curriculum. Students who experience challenges writing or keyboarding, for example, can use voice recognition software instead. Assistive technologies assist people who are recovering from strokes and people who have abstained injuries that effect their daily tasks.
A curb cut (U.S.), curb ramp, depressed curb,dropped kerb (UK), pram ramp, or kerb ramp (Australia) is a solid ramp graded down from the top surface of a sidewalk to the surface of an adjoining street. It is designed primarily for pedestrian usage and commonly found in urban areas where pedestrian activity is expected. In comparison with a conventional curb a curb cut is finished at an intermediate gradient that connects both surfaces, sometimes with tactile paving.
Accessibility is the design of products, devices, services, vehicles, or environments so as to be usable by people with disabilities. The concept of accessible design and practice of accessible development ensures both "direct access" and "indirect access" meaning compatibility with a person's assistive technology.
Universal design is the design of buildings, products or environments to make them accessible to people, regardless of age, disability or other factors. It addresses common barriers to participation by creating things that can be used by the maximum number of people possible. Curb cuts or sidewalk ramps, which are essential for people in wheelchairs but also used by all, are a common example of universal design.
A low-floor bus is a bus or trolleybus that has no steps between the ground and the floor of the bus at one or more entrances, and low floor for part or all of the passenger cabin. A bus with a partial low floor may also be referred to as a low-entry bus or seldom a flat-floor bus in some locations.
A wheelchair ramp is an inclined plane installed in addition to or instead of stairs. Ramps permit wheelchair users, as well as people pushing strollers, carts, or other wheeled objects, to more easily access a building, or navigate between areas of different height. Ramps for accessibility may predate the wheelchair and are found in ancient Greece.
A mobility scooter is an electric vehicle and mobility aid mostly auxiliary to a power wheelchair but configured like a motorscooter. When motorized they are commonly referred to as a power-operated vehicle/scooter, or electric scooter. Non-motorized mobility scooters are less common, but are intended for the estimated 60% of wheelchair users who have at least some use of their legs. Whilst leg issues are commonly assumed to be the reason for using scooters, the vehicles are used by those with a wide range of conditions from spinal to neurological.
A wheelchair-accessible van is a vehicle that has been modified by increasing the interior size of the vehicle and equipping it with a means of wheelchair entry, such as a wheelchair ramp or powered lift.
A curb, or kerb, is the edge where a raised sidewalk or road median/central reservation meets a street or other roadway.
Tactile paving is a system of textured ground surface indicators found at roadsides, by and on stairs, and on railway station platforms, to assist pedestrians who are vision impaired.
Accessibility for people with disabilities on the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) system is incomplete but improving.
The term "ADA Signs" has come into common use in the architectural, construction and signage industries with the advent of the Americans With Disabilities Act, or ADA. The Americans with Disabilities Act regulates accessibility; and includes requirements for signage that is conveniently located and easy to read both visually and through tactile touch.
Accessible toilets are toilets that have been specially designed to better accommodate people with physical disabilities. Persons with reduced mobility find them useful, as do those with weak legs, as a higher toilet bowl makes it easier for them to stand up. Additional measures that can be taken to add accessibility to a toilet include providing more space, adding grab bars to ease transfer to and from the toilet seat, and providing extra room for a caregiver if necessary. Some countries have requirements concerning the accessibility of public toilets. Toilets in private homes can be modified (retrofitted) to increase accessibility.
Accessible tourism is the ongoing endeavor to ensure tourist destinations, products, and services are accessible to all people, regardless of their physical or intellectual limitations, disabilities or age. It encompasses publicly and privately owned and operated tourist locations. The goal of accessible tourism is to create inclusivity of all including those traveling with children, people with disabilities, as well as seniors. This allows those with access requirements to be able to function as an independent using products following the universal design principle, a variety of services, and different environments.
A wheelchair lift, also known as a platform lift, or vertical platform lift, is a fully powered device designed to raise a wheelchair and its occupant in order to overcome a step or similar vertical barrier.
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability.
Accessible bathtubs are bathtubs that can be used by people with limited mobility or the disabled. A bathtub can be made accessible for some people by the addition of grab bars or hand grips, or through the use of lifts that lower and raise the bather in the water. Other bathtubs have been specially designed for accessibility. These may include walk-in bathtubs, tubs with built-in transfer benches, or, more recently, tubs with raised beds and sliding doors to allow for a seated transfer.
Accessible housing refers to the construction or modification of housing to enable independent living for persons with disabilities. Accessibility is achieved through architectural design, but also by integrating accessibility features such as modified furniture, shelves and cupboards, or even electronic devices in the home.
An adapted automobile is an automobile adapted for ease of use by disabled people. Automobiles, whether cars or vans, can be adapted for a range of physical disabilities.
Under Italian Law 104/1992, "disability" is defined as a loss of the ability of the person to perform basic daily activities unaided."
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