Housing
Accessibility
Affordable/Accessible Housing Home |
Housing Locator (Rentlinx):
Resources:
- About the "Finding Our Way Home" Project
- Acronyms and Definitions
- Affordability
- Agencies
- Accessibility
- Advocacy
- Housing Options
- Laws/Legal Resources
- Supportive Services
Comments or suggestions?
Please send to:
ngrit@prosynergy.org
Use the following to help scroll down this page:
General Accessibility | Universal Design | Visit-ability | Vendors and Products |
General Accessibility
Making Homes Accessible: Assistive Technology and Home Modifications:
This resource guide produced by the RESNA Technical Assistance Project provides information about assistive technology and home modifications. The guide covers definitions; laws and guidelines; initiatives from the Assistive Technology Act grantees; advocacy, financing, modification, and research resources; accreditations; online courses; and a bibliography.
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Universal Design
Universal Design is the art of creating environments that are attractive and user friendly for people of all ages and abilities.
Links to more information about universal design.
- Zero Step: The purpose of the Zero Step program is to provide consumers with information about a home design concept known as universal design.
- Center for Inclusive Design and Environmental Access (IDEA) at Buffalo: The IDEA Center is dedicated to improving the design of environments and products by making them more usable, safer and appealing to people with a wide range of abilities throughout their life spans.
- Integrating Universal Design Principles in Asset Building Programs: This word document is a paper from the World Institute on Disability (WID) from February 2004. From the paper: "Universal Design began largely as physical accommodation practices that revolutionized the way people thought about access issues. This paper proposes ways of expanding Universal Design concepts to Asset Building programs, using concrete examples for implementation."
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Visit-ability
ALso known as Inclusive Home Design, visit-ability includes:
- A focus on homes, not government buildings, restaurants, etc...(important as they are)
- ALL homes-- not just "special" homes; being at the party, the meeting, the reunion--not isolation.
- Narrowing the emphasis from a long list of possible or desirable access features to the most essential features: entering a home and fitting through the interior doors. So that widespread construction change is more likely to happen quickly.
These features minimally include:
- One zero-step entrance.
- All main floor interior doors--including bathrooms-- with 32 inches of clear passage space.
- At least a half bath, preferably a full bath, on the main floor.
Michigan Enacts First State Inclusive Home Design Legislation
On June 6, 2006, the hard work of Michigan advocates paid off as Michigan enacted the Inclusive Home Design Act, Act No. 182. The act was introduced by Introduced by Reps. Wenke and Miller. Representative Wenke received the "Corrie Bair Building Inclusive Communities Award" from the Michigan Disability Rights Coalition in recognition of his advocacy for passage of this act.
Web Resources:
- Concrete Change: The best resource on visitability from the originator of the term!
- Inclusive Home Design Act, Act No. 182: Michigan's Visit-ability Act.
- Visitability Initiative Project: Wonderful resources include on on-line tutorial, powerpoint presentations, paper, a listserv and more!
Vendors and Products
The following resources are for vendors/products to help make a home accessible. While these have been suggested to us, we haven't checked on the companies or products and are not making recommendations or endorsements of any kind. Have a product or service to add? Let us know! (See the Housing Home page for contact information.)
- Products and Services: From Wheelchair Net this page lists a wide range of products and services to make the environment (including homes) accessible for people who use wheelchairs.
- Disability On-Line: Guide to Accessible Home Products.
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Rentlinx
MDRC offers you Housing Search, which is a link to the extensive rental database of Rentlinx. Rentlinx is solely responsible for the content of this rental property site.
"This project is funded by the Michigan Developmental Disabilities Council"
