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This renovation project has numerous accessibility features for this client with significant current needs. The client had experienced a stroke which resulted in higher function on her left side and her use of a power chair to get around. The project yielded an accessible entrance to the raised ranch, wider doorways throughout, an accessible bathroom and kitchen, and a more chair-friendly interior. The existing bathroom was opened up, taking out walls around the water closet and widening the closet access. A new roll in shower has both grab bars e and hand held shower. The water closet was rotated 90 degrees, with grab bars placed on her good side. The roll under vanity has a tilted mirror to accommodate standing or seated user. Lighting throughout was changed to LED for longevity. The existing bath was totally opened, and white marble-look tile used to unify the spaces. A large open area was provided to allow a turning circle for her power chair. Love this remodel? Find more of Doug Walters work here: https://www.dougwalterarchitects.com/

Our friend and colleague, Olav Rand Bringa, has been a primary catalyst for universal design adoption in Norway for over 15 years. In this first in a series of articles about their experience, Mr. Bringa explores UD in a wayfinding context. Universal design has been part of Norway’s national policies and strategies for more than 15 years and is preferred to the traditional approach of accessibility for people with disabilities in public environments. At present, universal design is included in 63 laws and regulations and in practice in several sectors of society. The theoretical concept of universal design has been tested extensively in real-life environments. Universal Design has proven quite solid and Norway’s experiences may be useful in the application of universal design elsewhere. “Hidden” Universal Design A few years ago, the interiors of stations in the Oslo Metro were given a facelift. There have been several such renovations since the downtown stations were newly constructed between 1928 and 1977. During a recent round of upgrades, special attention was given to improve the information and signage systems for travelers. The old light blue signs with detailed information of destinations were replaced with new signs with better contrast and a more manageable amount of information. Confusing TV-monitors and out of use ticket-machines were removed and the lighting was improved. Well proven and tested design principles were used and the stations became easier to navigate, which was the intention. The new design was systematically used on all stations, and one important change produced a rather unexpected outcome. As in most public places, accessible exits were formerly marked with the international accessibility pictogram, and other exits were simply marked “Exit”. In the new scheme, many of the signs to the accessible entrances were altered by removing the accessibility pictogram. In the past, when accessible routes were unmarked, these instances were quickly detected by disabled travelers and corrected by the transport company. In this case, the changes remained unremarked-on. In the new design, exits which could be used by all travelers were simply marked with “Exits”, other exits were marked with pictograms for stairs, lifts etc. The use of signs was thus reversed. The accessible exit became the obvious exit for all travelers, needing no special marking. Other exits were marked with their specific restrictive properties. The accessibility symbol was only used when the accessible exits were difficult to locate. The new way of using signs and pictograms apparently worked as it should. Even more; it was a subtle, but important, manifestation of a change of mindset. The new design was not an accidental. Special Advisor Bo Graaner in the coordinating transport organization Ruter explains: “Universal design is imbedded in the new design philosophy. The exit for all travelers is the main exit and this should be recognized in the design”. Societal Attitudes Two surveys from 2018 reveal the Norwegian change in attitudes about universal design over time. In 2017-2018 Sentio Research Norway conducted a survey on the population’s knowledge and attitudes towards universal design. 2000 respondents participated in the survey, and 60 % of them said that they had heard about universal design. Half of them confirmed that they knew what it was, the other half were more uncertain about what universal design meant. People's attitudes towards the concept was very positive, and more than 80% points out universal design of buildings for public use and public transport as very important. When it comes agreement with positive statements, the possibility for people to live independent lives top the list. Interesting enough, close to 90% agree that “Universal design is necessary for some and useful for many”. This slogan was used in information pamphlets and awareness-raising campaigns. The associations that the public makes with universal design is also interesting: inclusive, important, modern and flexible is on top of the list, and the number of people with a positive feeling about universal design has increased since 2013 when the same question was asked. On the bottom of the list we find terms such as individual freedom, tasteful design, profitable and cosy. These are the less positive associations with universal design and give a good clue to what should be addressed in coming information campaigns. So, what about the professionals and the politicians, the people who are responsible for designing our surroundings? From 2011 to 2018 Ipsos carried out a survey for The Norwegian Building Authority to map the views of politicians and professionals in municipalities and employees in buildings businesses towards universal design . This survey gives an interesting picture of how the respondents rate universal design over that seven-year period. Positive attitudes towards universal design has been steadily growing, and in 2018 100% of the respondents agree that new buildings for public use such as cinemas, libraries, public offices and schools should be universally designed. High scores are also the rule for universal design of other new buildings like dwellings and for parks and out-door areas. Universal design of existing buildings does not have the same support by these respondents. Ongoing debates concerning the supposed high costs of making existing buildings universally designed may be the reason for this. When politicians and professionals are asked which elements of universal design are decisive for a good universal solution, physical accessibility tops the list with way finding and understanding of the building second and comprehensive planning with focus on the user close behind. The new design of the Oslo Metro and the acceptance by the travelers were a silent success. It could not have happened without the professional confidence of the designers and the understanding of the public. The new sign program demonstrated the essence of universal design. Olav Rand Bringa is a Senior Advisor in the Ministry of Children and Equality, part of the national government of Norway. You can contact Olav at bringa@online.no

One way for a product or architectural feature to arrive at a universal outcome is through the intention of serving the needs of a narrow user group. The now ubiquitous automatic opening doors at supermarkets entered service to ease passage for customers pushing shopping carts or carrying packages in their arms. In fact, pushing a shopping cart or carrying packages makes operating a standard commercial hinged door more difficult for most of us. Sometimes we refer to people who have difficulty performing everyday tasks as, “circumstantially disabled.” That is, the particular manner of the task performance itself puts the person at a disadvantage, and in a position not typical of their day-to-day human performance characteristics. All of us experience this phenomenon every day without thinking about it. It represents one of the key use patterns that universal design was intended to ameliorate. In solving those challenges, the door manufacturers also assisted many others who might have had trouble operating the doors even if they weren't dealing with their purchased items. In this case, the unintended beneficiaries of these doors have been those with mobility problems, people who are smaller, children, older shoppers, those with balance or strength problems, etc. In true universal fashion, nearly everyone benefits from commercial doors that operate with automatic opening features. The images and commentary in this article take a look at automatic opening doors and why they are so universal. In this image, a woman who is using a manual wheelchair is seen as she is about to pass through the doorway of a grocery store through which the intended beneficiary of these doors is also passing: a man who is walking behind the grocery cart that he is pushing. Whether carrying packages or not, the woman would certainly have some trouble with standard hinged doors with typical door weight. The gentleman would have been at least circumstantially disabled by standard hinged doors due to the need to maneuver himself and the cart. Widely used, “no-touch” automatic doors accommodate all types of users, including those who have mobility challenges, those pushing carts, as well as those whose hands are filled with purchases. Simple, and in common use, the wide automatic door is an excellent example of Universal Design. With her hands full, this image depicts another originally intended beneficiary, a woman departing a grocery store carrying multiple grocery bags, as well as her personal belongings. Had there have been a door handle with which she'd have to contend, her exit would have been hampered, and made much more complicated. Whether carrying bags or not, some people would lack adequate strength to manage many standard hinged doors, that have closers that add to the difficultly of opening. Wheeling a hand truck, this image depicts a man departing a grocery store transporting a number of boxes to his vehicle. In order to pass out through the doorway safely, both his hands are needed to control the hand truck. In this image, a woman is wearing a leg brace perhaps from a temporary health problem. This reduces the use of her left knee and leg while entering a grocery store through its automatic, electronic eye-controlled doorway. The automatic doors reduce the amount of effort needed by all who enter the doorway, which includes those experiencing reduced mobility such as this woman with an impaired gait. Otherwise, the woman might have had to apply weight on her leg and pivot to open and pass through a standard door: difficult and possibly painful. In this image, an older woman is passing through the automatic sliding doors at the store. She doesn't have to shift her bags or alter her movement to leave the store.  In this image, a grocery store worker is shown exiting the store through its automatically-controlled front entrance, while he was pushing a cart laden with bags of groceries. The safe mode of pushing the cart required that both hands be used, in order to guide it along its path to the vehicle, which he’d then load. These doors have been so successful, we imagine that today, one couldn’t open many stores and buildings without doors like these. These doors fulfill the following Universal Design Principles/Guidelines: Provide the same means of use for all users identical whenever possible equivalent when not Avoid segregating or stigmatizing any users Provisions for privacy, security, and safety should be equally available to all users Make the design appealing to all users Provide choice in methods of use Eliminate unnecessary complexity Provide fail safe features Allow user to maintain a neutral body position Use reasonable operating forces Minimize repetitive actions Minimize sustained physical effort Provide adequate space for the use of assistive devices or personal assistance

It has been 20 years since the untimely and sudden passing of Ronald L Mace. So much time has passed that many people might not know who he was or what he meant to the worlds of accessibility and universal design from the 1970’s through the 1990’s. We are providing the following biography to remember him and to honor his work and his legacy, which lasts to this day. Ronald L. Mace, FAIA, was a nationally and internationally recognized architect, product designer, educator, and mentor. He coined and passionately promoted the concept of universal design, a design philosophy that challenged convention and provided a design foundation for a more usable world. Ron's pioneering work in accessible design, which provided a foundation for universal design, was instrumental in the passage of national legislation prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities, particularly the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 and The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Mr. Mace’s work included acting as design consultant, teacher, researcher, author, lecturer, mediator, and expert witness. Clients of Mr. Mace included most federal agencies, many state and local governments, corporations, architects, attorneys, disability organizations, and trade associations. In 1989, Ron established the federally funded Center for Accessible Housing, later renamed The Center for Universal Design, at the School of Design at North Carolina State University in Raleigh. Ron was also President of Barrier Free Environments, Inc. (BFE), and a Principal of BFE Architecture, P.A. in Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1988, he was appointed to the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Architects (FAIA). In celebrating Ron’s life, there were many intense recollections. One colleague noted, “Ron had an incredible standard of excellence. He attended to design detail in an unequaled way because of his deep understanding and appreciation of how people work and how they use places, spaces and products.” Ron’s last public appearance was at the first Designing for the 21st Century International Conference on Universal Design, in June 1998. He was thrilled with the outpouring of energy, of commitment, with people from all over the world talking about how they were trying to and often succeeding in creating and/or teaching universal design. He was surrounded by hundreds of people who had chosen to make universal design their life work. He was so happy. Regrettably, Ron died unexpectedly on June 29, 1998. The RL Mace Universal Design Institute , now based in Asheville, NC, strives to continue improving the use and utility of the built environment for everyone via consulting, design, and educational activities.

We really like using a “wet area bath” option for curb-less showers in small bathrooms. This shower at the National Building Museum shows one way to contain water with hinged glass doors!

Universal design and Better Living Design are actually pretty close in meaning. Universal design is quite broad and applied to the entire designed world, including the built environment but also to educational practices and even the digital environment. Better Living Design is focused exclusively on the residential sector: new home design and construction, home remodeling and the products that go into homes. Living Well The 2014 Home for Life. — Image courtesy of Hanley Wood Learn more about age-friendly homes: Slideshow: A House That Can Be a Home for Life 6 Creatively Age-Friendly Housing Options Builders Learn the Importance of “Women-Centric” Homes Inclusive Home Design State Advocacy Tool Kit Background Universal design (UD) was developed 30 years ago with the imperative that designers accommodate a wider range of users and understand that people’s performance characteristics change throughout their lives. As applied to housing, universal design means accommodating design features that are integrated into the overall design of a home or product. The result is that the home or product works better for a wide range of people and is appealing and marketable to a wide audience. One reason we created the “Better Living Design” brand was because of challenges that both the home building industry and consumers have had understanding what universal design is. Those challenges have prevented a broader adoption of universal design. The problem is that for many people, universal design has become a general-purpose term for assistive technology and all things accessible. People associate UD with specialty home features such as ramps and wheelchair lifts and kitchens designed for seated users. While these elements are essential for folks who need them, mainstream households seeking general-purpose homes and remodeling don’t see those features as useful or desirable. In contrast, research shows that consumers will gravitate toward ease-of-use and convenience features that look quite typical and are well integrated into the design of a home. Better Living Design-constructed homes look like other homes in a neighborhood but have features that are quite handy and have lasting utility. Better Living Design (also referred to as BLD) homes are a terrific long-term value that works well for residents and visitors — today and in the future. The Better Living Design Institute’s job is to make the home building industry and consumers  aware of these good looking, value-added, generic features that can be included in new homes or designed into many remodeling projects.

A BLD home isn’t difficult to achieve. The program gives people lots of flexibility in how to integrate these features into a new home or remodeling project. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. For example, one-story homes work well for Better Living Design, but homes with or without basements can also be fine, and even homes with two or three levels can work well. Almost any size home in any style can become a Better Living Design home. Among the features of a Better Living Design home (These are broad strokes examples. Many more options are possible.) : The house looks like the other houses in the neighborhood, both outside and inside. The house has at least one way to get into it that doesn’t require using stairs. This access could be through the front door or the garage, or a back or side door. Having at least one no-step entrance is as helpful to a parent pushing a baby stroller as it is to an older person. The house would ideally have an open plan design, at least on the first floor, so it’s easy to get around. Hallways would be at least 42 inches wide with passage doorways of 34 inches wide. The key function areas of the home — a bedroom, the kitchen, bathroom, laundry —are on a level that can be reached without using stairs. The kitchen has easy-to-reach storage and multiple work surface heights to accommodate tall and short people. In an ideal BLD home, outlets and wall switches are easy to reach and the house can easily accommodate home technology for controlling lighting, HVAC, security, communications, entertainment and maybe even home health technologies. Many additional products and features can enhance a BLD home. However, the main features that make the biggest difference in peoples’ lives are primarily structural and are built-in at the time of new construction or remodeling. Go here for more information: https://www.betterlivingdesign.org/bld-criteria

We’ve known about our aging society for many years. We’ve seen this coming. Builders and developers need to incorporate more long-term utility, allowing residents to maintain their lifestyle as it changes over the decades. Homes need to be flexible over time, so the functional customizations that have to be made can be accomplished more easily. BLD Call For Action 1.) We want architects, designers and builders to start including curbless showers, which are good looking and work well for everyone. 2.) We want them to start thinking creatively about where and how to include step-free routes into homes. 3.) We want them to start including covered porches that are at the same level as the first floor, whether or not the porch has a step-free route. That way people can spend time in a shaded outdoor space regardless of their ability to navigate stairs. 4.) We’d like the home building industry to stop creating bathrooms that can’t easily adapt to long-term needs. It’s not hard to locate and orient fixtures that will work even if someone needs to use specialized care or mobility equipment later or needs a caregiver to provide assistance.

In his interesting article, Easy Chair , John Crowley makes the case for broadly applied accommodating design, generally referred to as universal design. Of particular interest to me is the beginning of the piece, found in the January issue of Harper’s Magazine. Crowley describes a 1950 movie, The Men , that chronicles the struggles of returning WWII soldiers with spinal cord injuries. He describes the final scene where the main character who uses a wheelchair is helped up the stairs of his own home. The poignancy of his obstacle and need for assistance, while a situation less frequent now than it was 65 years ago, is a scenario that is still a reality for many people and their homes in the US. Most homes can’t easily accommodate people whose performance characteristics vary very far from the typical. Most homes have stairs leading inside. Crowley follows with a statement that is close to the heart of the Better Living Design (BLD) initiative. “if they just got rid of those steps, the house could be entered with no particular necessity for moral growth.” Exactly. We at BLD promote homes for everyone that happen to allow use by a wide range of people. These are homes – because they look like other homes – that don’t require moral growth to acquire and use, just a little common sense. http://harpers.org/archive/2015/01/universal-use/

Our response to this article on aging in place and universal design Universal Design and Stairs in Homes We recognize some good ideas in this article, but it seems to describe a home with both UD AND custom features (grab bars, wheelchair accessible counter areas). It also has reference to no stairs. A UD home doesn’t have to have to without stairs. It doesn’t even have to have step free access to ever space in the home. We love stairs However, a UD home needs to have step free access to primary function areas. Additionally, there is an unfortunate reference to ADA accessibility. A reference such as this is generally a sign that the author isn’t that familiar with UD and access issues in a residential context. As many know, the ADA has no jurisdiction or applicability to most home settings.

“The U.S. Census bureau estimates that by 2030, one in five Americans will be 65 or older. What needs to be done within the housing sector to ensure that the nation is ready?” First, new home buyers and remodeling customers need to start asking for and thinking about sustainability features now more than ever. We know that the industry will respond to sustained market preferences. Next, remodelers, builders, architects and interior designers need to get educated about Better Living Design, get certified in it and start to market their BLD homes or BLD remodeling capacity to the public. Marketing Better Living Design means promoting a home’s ease of use and its convenience features that look good and work well as opposed to selling stigmatizing features and wondering why people won’t buy. The industry has to get savvy about explaining BLD. Bathrooms are great places to add a BLD touch. For example, BLD homes include blocking behind the walls near the toilet, tub and shower. That way if a person someday needs the help of grab bars, the bars can be located anywhere they are needed. A builder or remodeler needs to be able to explain this to customers in a way that points out this hidden element and emphasizes the value-added aspect of it. Something else a professional can do is suggest the many models of nice-looking hand holds that don’t look a bit like a grab bar but still offer the subtle support that many of us need. Staying in the bathroom, a toilet can be oriented and placed so there is extra space next to it, leaving room enough for someone who requires a wheelchair or needs a caregiver nearby. The professional needs to be able to explain that if a household doesn’t have a current need for this, the space can be occupied by a nice piece of furniture that can be used for storing toilet paper, towels or other items. Home builders (and let’s not forget realtors) need to explain to home buyers, “This isn’t wasted space. You can put furniture there, but if grandma comes to visit over the holidays and needs help in the bathroom you can easily move that furniture out of the way.” People have negative associations with designs that look accessible. That’s why it’s easy to sell no-step, curb-less showers that are becoming really fashionable now. A BLD house that looks good and works for someone today will be able to work for them 10, 20 or 30 years down the line.

If Better Living Design is successful, middle-aged and older households will have more aging in place options than they do now. Many people now live in their standard homes for years or decades beyond when they’re safely able to do so because they don’t believe they have viable options. As BLD is incorporated into more housing, more housing will be available with age-friendly features. For example, with the inclusion of Better Living Design features, the “move or improve” dilemma won’t be quite so fraught and stressful. Instead of people having to choose between staying in their home or moving to a nursing home, they may be able to stay in their home making only a few simple and modest customizations. Rather than having to consider adding a ramp, or adding a downstairs bedroom and bathroom at a cost of many thousands of dollars, a BLD homeowner may only need to add grab bars, or modify a couple of base cabinets. Or perhaps someone might be able to move to a location of their choice and into a house that already contains the kind of features that will let them age in place. Although we’re emphasizing the importance of housing, aging in place should be considered in the context of aging in community. Is the BLD home in a good location? People need to look at their home from the perspective of their community and neighborhood. The quality of a their home and it’s the community it’s in both matter.