Four Small Steps to Gain 1,000 Accessible Homes
07/12/2015
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 7, 2015
Dignity for Disability MLC Kelly Vincent – media release
Four Small Steps to Gain 1,000 Accessible Homes
Dignity for Disability MLC, Hon Kelly Vincent is calling on the state government to demand 100 percent accessible housing during its 1,000 homes in 1,000 days project.
“Simple features such as: wider doorways, at least one entry that is step-free, a toilet on the ground floor and bathroom walls reinforced so that they are able to be fitted with appropriate rails when needed. These four simple adaptions to any house plan mean safer, more accessible housing stock for South Australia’s ageing community,” says Kelly Vincent.
“The cost-saving over the lifetime of the dwelling needs to be counted in terms of the guaranteed reduction of falls in the home. With ageing comes an increase in disability, and the sooner we wake up to this and start changing our built environment to accommodate this, the better.
“I have found builders and designers in Adelaide who are shockingly ignorant of the principles of universal design, and that is why I am pushing to have universal design incorporated under the state’s new planning laws.
“Retro-fitting a house to accommodate a wheelchair is retro-thinking. We need to plan for the needs we know our community will increasingly have as we age.
“Universal design is designed to improve people’s lives. We want a thousand new accessible bathrooms, a thousand accessible bathrooms that need to be tiled, a thousand tradespeople getting hands-on experience with accessible building. With this initiative, the government can give a gift of accessibility that keeps on giving to future generations of South Australians.
“Any accessible home is a dream home. Everything is easier with wider doorways: from unpacking the shopping, wheeling a bike inside, getting a pram or moving a wheelchair through, it all becomes simpler when living in a well-designed home, instead of a continual struggle.
“Even if we don’t have fully accessible housing these four core building blocks of universal design would go a long way to improving the lives of the eventual inhabitants of these 1,000 homes.
“Government needs to take the lead and show the building industry that this innovation does not represent a ridiculous cost impost that they so frequently bleat about.
“Dignity for Disability applauds the government’s initiative to boost the local building industry at a time of such struggle for so many, but we say let’s get it right, for the benefit of the whole community.
“Accessibility is an opportunity to future proof housing. We have the opportunity to be an Australian leader in this space and I see no reason not to do so. That’s four small steps for Jay Weatherill, and a giant leap forward for South Australia,” said Ms Vincent.
