Visitability Housing

Visitable housing is an emerging approach to house design that promotes the inclusion of a basic level of accessibility into ALL housing and enables everyone to get in and out of the house and be able to use the bathroom. This approach accommodates visitors to your home including people who may require the use of mobility aids such as wheelchairs, walkers or scooters, as well as seniors and families with small children with limited mobility or those with disabilities.  It will also better accommodate the reality of changing ability that we all experience as we grow older.  

Visitable Design Features

In the Visitability Movement, three key features are promoted;

1.    At least one zero-step entrance - minimum 91.4 centimetres (36 inches ) wide - on an accessible route leading from a driveway or public sidewalk,

2.    All interior doors providing at least 81 cm ( 31 ¾ inches) of unobstructed passage space, and

3.    At least a half  bathroom on the main floor that is wheelchair accessible.

Other inexpensive Visitable Design Features may be added to improve the convenience and suitability of a home. These include:

          • Reinforced bathroom walls (for the installation of grab bars, if desired)

          • Levered door handles and single-lever kitchen and bathroom faucets

          • Raised electrical outlets — 45.7 centimetres (18 inches) from the floor

          • Lowered climate controls

          • Lowered light switches — 121.9 centimetres (48 inches) from the floor

Visitable house designs that include a bedroom and a full bathroom on the main floor provide an attractive housing option.

Homes with Visitable features demonstrate the first stage of universal design. Further adaptations to assist with a disability can be easily added to a Visitable home, if and when the need arises.

Edmonton Fire Department Response

The Edmonton Medical Services and Fire Rescue has a service for people requiring special assistance in case of an emergency.  You have to print off and send in the form below every year.  When 911 is dialed, EMS and the fire department will be made aware of the information you have provided.  For example, if there is a fire in an apartment building, they will be aware that there is someone with a mobility impairment in the building.  

Special situation form for 911 Dispatch

Lifeline

Lifeline is an easy-to-use personal response service that lets you summon help any time of the day or night - even if you can't speak. All you have to do is press your Personal Help Button, worn on a wristband or pendant, and a trained Personal Response Associate will ensure you get help fast.

For more information, visit their website. 

Also see other alerts, sensors, and monitoring methods at the Smart House Technologies page.

Edmonton: A Leading Example in Universal Design

Edmonton is proving to be a leader in Universal Design, from its many examples of residental designs, media coverage to raise awareness of these concepts, to the support and recognition of such initiatives by City Counsil and education based initiatives by the University of Alberta.

Here is a link to media coverage from the Edmonton Journal on the Faid's home, designed by architect Ron Wickman with the principles of aging-in-place and Universal Design:

http://www.househunting.ca/Buying-Homes/story.html?id=f420254b-0790-42f9-95ba-6e87cee7a0dc

This link is to an article also by the Edmonton Journal on architect Ron Wickman's universal home:

http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/story.html?id=3c208fc5-e7a7-4436-9a70-13b9dde6467b

The following link illustrates the support of the City of Edmonton towards accessibility and inclusion:

http://www.edmonton.ca/city_government/news/2009/edmontonians-honoured-for-cont.aspx

The City of Edmonton has also created a Checklist for Accessibility & Universal Design in Architecture, which can be accessed with this link:

http://www.edmonton.ca/for_residents/AccessibilityChecklist2008.pdf

The University of Alberta offers an inter-discliplinary Universal Design course within the faculties of Industrial Design, Occupational Therapy, as well as Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.  In 2008 the goal of this project was to collaboratively design a Smart Condo space combining technology with innovative and universal design to be incorporated with Edmonton Clinic North.  The final prototype is located at the TELUS Centre on the University of Alberta's campus.  The U of A continues to offer this course, each year with a different focus.

Here is a link where you can explore the final Smart Condo product as well as innovative research initiatives:

http://www.healthscience.ualberta.ca/nav02.cfm?nav02=87350&nav01=15074

Aging in Place Website: The National Aging in Place Council is a senior support network. They have just launched a new website.

http://www.ageinplace.org/ 

• Home
• November 2009
• 13 Tips for Modifying Your Home So You Can Age in Place

 

13 Tips for Modifying Your Home So You Can Age in Place

Sally Erickson Bornschein, certified Aging in Place designer, offers 13 tips for modifying your home so you can live at home as you age.

http://www.mynorth.com/My-North/November-2009/13-Tips-for-Modifying-Your-Home-So-You-Can-Age-in-Place/

Nov 6, 2009

Builder and certified Aging in Place designer Sally Erickson Bornschein offers 13 ways you can modify your home so that it makes it easier to stay home as you age.

1. Task lighting - under-cabinet lighting in kitchen and workshop.
2. Step lighting and passageway lighting - little nightlights between bed and bathroom are very important.
3. Taller toilets - called comfort height
4. Hard surface driveways - to support walkers.
5. Grab bars - put the blocking in during construction or remodeling (2-by-10’s behind the sheetrock).
6. Build with energy efficiency in mind - seniors are moving toward a fixed income, low energy costs help them stay in their homes.
7. Secure locking systems
8. Video camera at the door - to see who is there.
9. For arthritis sufferers - lever handles on the doors instead of knobs. D-style handles on cabinets rather than knobs. Single handle instead of two on faucets.
10. Paint trim and walls dramatically different shades - (one light, one darker) to help people with poor eyesight guide themselves.
11. Install a 110 plug at the bottom of the stairway - for a stair chair.
12. Employ nontoxic materials wherever possible. Asthma is a major problem for older people, so indoor air quality is important.
13. Consider “no step” design from driveway to bathroom for wheelchair accessibility. 

 

Councillor will champion accessibility

 

Lise Poulin enters politics with a plan

 

By CATHERINE SOLYOM, The GazetteNovember 5, 2009

Story

• Photos ( 1 )

 

Lachine borough councillor Lise Poulin wheels down the driveway outside the borough offices on Wednesday.

Photograph by: John Mahoney, The Gazette

For Lise Poulin, newly elected borough councillor for Lachine, the leap from answering customer complaints at Bell to municipal politics will be an easy one.

"I think basically it's just listening to customers, whether they are Bell customers or citizens," said Poulin, 30, one of five Union Montreal candidates elected in Lachine, as she busily prepared for her new life. "Listening to their needs and trying to find a win-win solution. It's pretty much the same job."

But Poulin brings something new to the world of municipal politics as the first councillor in Montreal to use a wheelchair.

Born in Michigan with muscular dystrophy, she has lived in Montreal most of her life. She has never taken the métro, for obvious reasons, but other than that, she prefers to dwell on what she can do rather than what she can't.

First on the list, make the city more accessible to the physically disabled, as well as for an aging population who doesn't find it so easy to get up stairs, either.

Poulin says city hall, where she has been once to meet the mayor, is already accessible to wheelchairs, as are the Lachine borough offices, where she will work after she's sworn in Nov. 12.

But then there are the 18 other borough offices, she says, some of which still have work to do, as well as countless municipal libraries, Maisons de la culture, pools, sports centres and community centres that are impenetrable for people on wheels.

"I want to make sure (people in wheelchairs) can get into all borough offices, to be sure they can speak their minds and ideas. Then afterwards we'll work on the rest."

Poulin, who was at one time the poster child for the Canadian Association for Muscular Dystrophy, doesn't mind being the poster child for accessibility in city politics.

"People have always reminded me that I was different, but that's fine. Sometimes it got me into contact with other people because people were curious and wanted to know me, and that opened doors for me."

But on top of the architectural changes needed, there remains work to be done changing mindsets, she says.

While going door to door campaigning, many people came out of their houses onto the sidewalk to meet Poulin.

Some didn't.

"There are some people that still think a person in a wheelchair doesn't have a place at city hall. But I now have four years to show them they'll still be well served. ... In the past, people put together mental illness and physical handicap, but now it's being broken apart. We have all our heads, we can make decisions we can manage. It's not about intelligence."

Now, what to tell her old boss? Press 1 for "I quit."

csolyom@thegazette.canwest.com

© Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette

 

 

Aging population to drive property trends

23/10/2009

http://www.yourmortgage.com.au/news/3479/default.aspx

 

By Robert Carry

The coming decade's property trends will be driven by Australia's aging population, migration and global warming, First National Real Estate chief executive Ray Ellis has said.

Ellis pointed out that Baby Boomers are increasingly choosing to live out their retirements in their family home, elevating issues about accessibility and safety for elderly people as well as putting pressure on the supply of larger housing units sought by young families.

“Most homes are designed to accommodate larger, younger families rather than the needs of people as they age Heat Pumps,” Ellis said. “New residents to Australia on the other hand, will probably seek to rent until they get themselves established, which will place greater pressure on rental markets.”

Ellis said the twin factors of parents staying in their homes longer and migrants renting could mean property market become harder to enter.

Ellis added that global warming could continue to impact property trends, as energy efficient homes that collect their own water and supply their own power will grow in popularity. “Smart developers will capitalise on the growing demand for properties that are green, and I believe we will see more and more new homes delivering smarter, more efficient ways of using our precious resources,” Ellis said.