I want to talk about “Visitability.”

aegipan-omnicorn:

As a disabled, wheelchair-using, person, I am very lucky. I am among a few of the very luckiest.

Going on twenty-two years ago, I bought a house of my own in a brand new suburban development. And I got a chance to give input while the blueprints were still on the drawing board. So all the wheelchair adaptations are to my specs – the kitchen counters are all at the right height, the doors are all wide enough, I have a roll-in shower in my master bedroom suite, and everything is on a single floor.

Great, right?

Right!! Like I said: I am among some of the luckiest, most privileged, disabled people in the world (and I try to use my privilege for good).

Except:

My house is the only house in my neighborhood (as far as I know) that’s barrier-free. All my neighbors on either side and across the street from me have steps up to their front doors. None of them have bathrooms I can use. I’ve lived here for nearly twenty-two years, and I’ve never once been able to go up and knock on a neighbor’s door to borrow the proverbial cup of sugar. And after a few tries in the early years to get my heavy motorized wheelchair up the steps and through their doors, the neighbors stopped inviting me to get-togethers and baby showers (and once at their parties, I’d have to hold it, sometimes for hours, before I could get back home and use the bathroom – that really puts a damper on “eat, drink, and be merry.”).

Their houses may be as close to mine, physically, as my computer room is to my bedroom, but in terms of practical, day-to-day living, they might as well be hundreds of miles away.

That’s where the Visitability Movement begins: an aspect of Universal Design (link to the Wikipedia article) which acknowledges that people don’t just live in their own houses, they live in neighborhoods (and also, that houses last longer than people – the current owner may not need accommodations, but someone else might).

The Visitability Movement focuses on new developments only – It’s about building accessibility into the bones of houses from the very beginning – when  additional costs are either nothing or negligible – instead of trying to retrofit houses after the fact, when cost can be prohibitive.

Excerpt from the Website Visitability.org:

The three essential features are one entrance with zero steps; 32
inches or more of clear passage space through interior doors, including
bathrooms; and at least a half bathroom on the main floor.

The relevant visitability factor is a high number of visitable houses built, not a high number of features within a house.

This may seem like a minor issue, compared to the recent attacks on the ADA in Congress, and the Trump Administrations attempts to cripple Medicaid with work requirements.

But the way things are now, disabled people are effectively hidden behind the doors of their own houses, and it’s hard to get Disability Rights to be included in the “Kitchen Table Issues” if we can’t join in discussions around our neighbors’ kitchen tables.

…Ya know?