After a 3-month summer hiatus, I'm baaacccckkk!
Today's blog isn't about Louisville access, though -- but about housing access nationwide.
USAToday reports on the trend toward 'visitability' in a news story published today.
Almost 60 state and local governments have passed initiatives — some mandatory but most voluntary — asking all builders to include at least three features in new houses to help seniors and the disabled: no steps at the entrance, a bathroom on the ground floor and wider doorways.
These, of course, are the 3 keystones of visitability.
USAToday's story was prompted by AARP's new study on visitability, which I'll link to when it becomes available on its site.
It's interesting to read the comments to the article as well. The first few are of the "bravo!" variety:
...[P]eople friendly housing makes sense, and not just for the elderly, but for the middle age forty ish who may not want to admit that some things are not as easy as they used to be. Extra wide doorways, no step entryways, lever door hand handles and reinforced bathroom walls benifit us all. Furniture can be moved from room to room with relative ease, appliances can be wheeled into the when delivered instead of being bounced up the entry stair.
and
Accessible homes are not only for the elderly. There are children and younger adults with disabilities and countless veterans included. All homes should be built to accommodate wheelchairs. People have relatives, friends and other visitors who should be accommodated.
But then comment trollers found the story, and started yelling about "government mandates".
