The needs of the modern home—and the abilities of its residents—are increasingly varied, a fact that the contemporary housing market has yet to reflect Twenty years ago, Rosemarie Rossetti ran a small publishing business with her husband, Mark Leder, in the basement of their two-story home in Columbus, Ohio, and spent weekends hiking and playing… [Read More]

Source: Research & Training Center on Independent Living Can Grandma, who uses a walker, still attend the family Thanksgiving dinner? Can the friend who sustained a spinal cord injury in military service and now uses a wheelchair join the party to watch the big game? “Making Homes Visitable” (PDF) provides information about making homes visitable by people… [Read More]

By Patricia Morrissey & David Leake for the Center for Disability Studies Wheelchair users often find it impossible to make visits to the many homes that cannot be entered with wheelchairs. The idea of “visitable” housing has therefore been promoted to address this problem and prevent the social isolation it may bring. Visitable homes have… [Read More]

Improving access for all makes sense, builders and remodelers say. There’s a new word in the vocabulary of builders and remodelers: visitability. This word denotes a concept that significantly differs from the whole-home design principles that have been variously labeled accessible housing, universal design or adaptable housing. These more familiar terms are used for homes… [Read More]

According to a report issued this month by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, fewer than 4% of existing U.S. homes have features that allow for easy wheelchair access, including entryways without stairs, wide hallways and doors, and a first-floor bathroom. At the same time, one in three U.S. households is projected to be… [Read More]

Suzanne and Dan Swisher started looking for a new house a few years ago. With their children grown, they were ready to downsize to a place where they could live for the rest of their lives. But Suzanne had to visit most of the homes and models on her own. Dan, whose spinal cord was… [Read More]

HomeAdvisor was out Monday with its annual report on Aging in Place. What it found is not surprising: many baby boomers do not think of themselves as old and pay little heed to the notion of aging, wherever that may happen. But there is good reason for them to do so, and builders can play… [Read More]

INDIANAPOLIS — “Visitability” is not just a nice idea. In more and more Indiana communities it’s becoming a common practice due to advocacy and community education by not-for-profit groups like the Back Home in Indiana Alliance and Centers for Independent Living. “Visitability” is a term to describe housing that can be visited by people who… [Read More]

By Carolyn Cook with LiveSmart Design in Charlotte, NC for Davidson Committee on Aging, 2011 As the population ages and faces a greater number of physical disabilities, housing and community development must be re-examined.  Visitability is an affordable, sustainable and inclusive design approach for integrating basic accessibility features into all newly built homes and housing…. [Read More]

A National Association of Home Builders official said Cincinnati’s efforts to promote “visitability” concepts in new single-family home construction could be a national model for builders