An post on the secret benefits of accessibility

[conuly]

I remember having an argument with somebody about building houses accessible. I said that it only cost a few thousand dollars to build a new house with wide enough doors and a porch you can ramp for people in wheelchairs. It'd be hard to make something accessible to *everybody* at once (since two people may have complete opposite needs), but you can make the most obvious changes, right?

And he goes "Who'll pay for it?", like that's a big concern. I just didn't get it. I mean, once you're already spending a few hundred thousand for your new house, surely adding another ten thousand on to make it accessible doesn't break the bank, right? And it's got to be cheaper than renovating after the fact if something should happen.

Comments

[conuly]

I haven't looked into it. Frankly, unless we either take over our next door neighbor's driveway, or get legal access to the back alley behind our house, our home can't really be wheelchair accessible anyway. From the sidewalk, you have to go up 6 steps just to get to the bottom of the front porch, we're on a hill. I don't see how that can be fixed, honestly.

Even with the rebates, though, construction is a pain and a half, and where do you live while they're doing it?