The term “accessible design” refers to products and places usable by people with disabilities, such as a ramp along a stairway or a wheelchair-accessible toilet stall in a bathroom with non-accessible stalls, according to Edward Steinfeld, director of the rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Universal Design at the State University of New York at Buffalo. They often are special facilities added alongside non-accessible ones.
The design guidelines are set by state and federal regulations and include such features as grab bars in bathrooms, lowered countertops for wheelchair access with knee space underneath and clearances in front of and to the side of doorways, he said. Accessible features are in addition to visitability features.
Visitability is an affordable design approach that integrates accessible features in newly built homes, The goal is for a person with mobility impairments to be able to live in a home or receive disabled visitors there and also to visit the homes of other people. The features are cost-efficient because they’re included during the design stage rather than added on later.
A visitable house, Steinfeld said, must have at least three features:
– A zero-step entrance that leads to an accessible path with no steps, which is 36 inches wide and has a grade not steeper than 5 percent;
– Doorways on the ground floor that provide 32 inches of clear space and hallways that have 36 inches of clear width;
– Access to a half- or full-bathroom on the ground floor so a person in a wheelchair can enter and close the door.
Some municipalities are now adding a fourth feature — electrical controls that are located 15 to 48 inches from the floor.
Universal design includes products and buildings that are usable by everyone because it offers one solution that can accommodate those with disabilities as well as others without disabilities, Steinfeld said. Among some of the features: a universal entrance without stairs; a universal toilet stall with larger than standard clearances to accommodate a wheelchair; a kitchen with multiple countertop heights for different kinds of work — standing and sitting, for instance — and different users, rather than just lower countertop heights as in accessible design.
