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

[xianghua.livejournal.com]

The first, actuall- I have no idea what the statistical average, but it's the average height of women in my family and we conducted an exhaustive test over thanksgiving wekend and determined tat the lower counter height is lovely for everything except chopping veggies.

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

The average height for adult females in the U.S. is just under 5'4". I'm not saying that takes anything away from your point--I was just trying to understand what you meant--because if it works for someone who is 5'6", I imagine it works even better for someone who is shorter.

[xianghua.livejournal.com]

True!

Grandmother liked it the most- she's 5'1 (back problems, she was taller when she was younger, she's 92); Aunt Mary Carol the least (she's 5'6 and well... I betray my geekdom, but Dursleyish is a great adjective for her. If it's not what everyone else is doing, it must be inferior or evil.)

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

I'm 5'7" and I already feel like our counters are sort of low, but I would just deal with it if they were lower. (I'm the "runt" of my family, though, so I imagine I would get a lot of complaints from everyone else. On the other hand, I'm considered practically a giant in my boyfriend's family, so I bet I'd get positive remarks from them.)