A mostly excellent move, IMO. I have been trying to outfit my home to better meet my parents needs, and later my needs. I don't think it is possible to negotiate a wheelchair out of at least one of the main bedrooms, and even a walker is difficult to move around. I don't agree with the requirement for things like grabrails from the start, but the structural components should be there to be able to add stuff later.

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/038/nation/Illinois_Arizona_communities_o:.shtml

Illinois, Arizona communities order new homes be more accessible to people in wheelchairs

By Associated Press, 2/7/2002 03:19

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (AP) Two localities have adopted rules requiring that new homes be more accessible to people in wheelchairs, with wider doorways, lower light switches and other such features.

The City Council in Naperville, a fast-growing Chicago suburb, adopted the standards in a 7-1 vote Tuesday. A similar measure was approved the same day in Pima County, Ariz.

The Naperville measure extends the ''visitability'' standards required in public housing to private, single-family homes. The rules are called ''visitability'' standards because they make it easier for handicapped people to visit others.

''I think we're on the cutting edge of something,'' Naperville Mayor George Pradel said.

The new standards in this city of 128,000 do not apply to existing houses.

With the new standards, first-floor interior doorways must be at least 32 inches wide so people in wheelchairs can get through more easily. To make electrical sockets and light switches easier to reach from a wheelchair, the sockets can be no lower than 15 inches above the floor and the switches can be no higher than 48 inches.

A vote on a proposal to require homes to have at least one step-free entrance was put off for further study.

The Arizona ordinance, though, requires new homes to have a stepless entryway. It also mandates wider doorways, levers on some doors and grab bars on bathroom walls.

The ordinance was approved 3-2 by the Pima County Board of Supervisors.

''This is one tiny little thing we can do to make that situation a little easier for people in this community,'' said Colette Altaffer, who serves on Tucson's Commission on Disability Issues. County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said the measure will be phased in over the next 12 to 18 months.

In Naperville, some builders said they were concerned that the new standards would add to the cost of new homes.

But city officials said the cost will be minimal. For example, they said, reinforcing bathroom walls in case the homeowner decides to install railings will add no more than $250 per bathroom.

''This gives people in wheelchairs more freedom,'' said Bill Malleris, a Naperville activist whose neuromuscular disorder requires that he use a wheelchair. ''They can go where they want without having someone lift them out of a chair to go into houses, or help them use the bathroom.''

-- Anonymous, February 07, 2002