What is Universal Design?

• Simply stated, universal design is about how your home functions around the people who live there.
• It’s not just for seniors or people with handicaps, it’s for everyone.  Think of it in terms of comfort and safety.  It’s all about easy-to-use products that make your life convenient without forfeiting style.
• Universal design considerations include accessibility, wider doors, level walks, wider hallways, counters with better access heights, lever handles on fixtures, grab bars, and non-slip surfaces, and more.
• Lights controlled by motion detectors help when carrying large bulky packages.  Simply changing light bulbs from incandescent to compact florescent lamps can increase the efficiency of your lights and decrease your electric bill.
• Universal design is also environmentally friendly because you build a place that you will be able to live in for the rest of your life.  If done right, universal design will add significantly to the resale value of your home.  Planning ahead will allow you to adapt your home to your needs now, and prevent being caught off guard during a crisis, when rash decisions can have unhappy results.
• Better space planning and design can add features that are attractive and practical, saving time and money.
• The bathroom is one of the most dangerous rooms in the house.  Bathrooms are generally small and narrow, with slippery vinyl floors, poor lighting, low toilets, showers with high curbs, or tubs with poor access.  A bathroom may also contain sinks that are low and too narrow, making them unusable to those in a wheelchair.  Planning ahead and installing curbless showers with removable or fold-down seats, hand-held showers, taller toilets with grab bars, and wall mounted sinks and lever handles on fixtures, will be a great start. Pressure-balanced shower valves prevent scalding.
• You can improve your home’s usability by simply modifying a shower for your aging parents, or installing one or more of the following:  higher or lower work stations in the kitchen for tall or short individuals, a low open counter for wheelchair accessibility, movable counters, or a microwave at countertop height or lower.
• Planning and designing now is a good investment in your future, and will allow you to meet your retirement goals and objectives.  It will allow you to remain in your home well into the future instead of going to the expensive retirement home sooner than you had planned.

This article was written by John Drew CR, CKBR.