DISABILITIES

By Daniel J. Vance

It's the Christmas season, and perhaps you and yours planned a party to celebrate. One consideration you likely didn't dwell on before sending out invitations: perhaps some of the people you invited simply won't be able to get into or navigate your home.

Recently, Toledo became the first Ohio city to adopt a “visitability” law. Now all Toledo contractors building new homes with public funds must construct the homes in a way so that people with mobility disabilities can easily get into and navigate within them.

In brief, the homes must have a no-step entrance, 32-inch doorways and 36-inch hallways, and a main-floor, wheelchair-accessible bathroom.

“Some thirty cities in eight states now require (some form of) 'visitability,” said Wendy Wiitala, 36, a spokesperson for The Ability Center of Greater Toledo, which lobbied the Toledo City Council.

“People are living longer,” said Wiitala, “and living longer means a greater number of people eventually will have (mobility) impairments. So why would [a builder] build a home that has three steps getting into it, when the person buying it may one day have a stroke and not be able to get up the steps?”

Wiitala said that many people with mobility disabilities have been searching for accessible homes to buy but can't find them.

She said, “The importance of 'visitability' is that by [building homes this way] you also have made it possible for these people to become part of their neighborhood. Many of them are so isolated.”

Wiitala fully understands mobility disabilities. At 19, she became a quadriplegic after an automobile accident. She said that some of her neighbors do ask her over for “visits,” but to do one she must bring along a portable ramp. But not everyone with a mobility disability has a friend to carry along a portable ramp or neighboring homes with only a few entrance steps.

Wiitala said that Toledo had at least three builders constructing “visitability” homes even before the new law. The builders recognized that these types of homes were more valuable to buyers.

“Making homes 'visitable' has other non-disability related benefits,” she said. “For instance, lever door handles make it easier to get into a home with bags of groceries. Having a no-step entrance makes it easier for baby strollers. And wider doors and halls make for easier moving of furniture.”

For more, see www.danieljvance.com or www.abilitycenter.org