Elements of Visit-ability
 Contemporary Housing Design
Advantage of Visit-ability
 Why Hasn't visit-ability Gained Wider Acceptance?
Costs of Visit-ability
 Case Studies
Advocacy Strategies
Recent Visit-ability Initiatives
Conclusion
Source Cited/Appendix/Acknowledgement

vi-sit-a-bi-li-ty-- the ability to include disabled visitors in one's home.(Seems to me to be the right thing for us to do.)

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What is Visit-ability?
Visit-ability is an affordable, sustainable and inclusive design approach for integrating basic accessibility features into all newly built homes and housing. The Visit-ability movement is based on the conviction that inclusion of basic architectural access features in all new homes is a civil and human right and improves livability for all.

History and Philosophy
Passing by a new Habitat for Humanity housing development in Atlanta in 1986, Eleanor Smith suddenly wondered whether anyone had thought to make the houses accessible. Her consciousness about universal access had been raised by working with the national advocacy group ADAPT on a program for getting lifts on all new buses. This work led to the insight that the houses being built were no different than what she had seen for years and had never questioned. Later that day, she read a news story reporting that several of the Habitat homes she had passed had been specially designed for residents with disabilities. She realized that because the adaptations needed had been specifically requested by the incoming resident, only a few of the homes being constructed would be accessible. The people with disabilities who lived in them would not be able to visit their neighbors.

Eleanor had a connection with a local group of eight community advocates with disabilities. She interested them in the problem she identified. The group (which later named their initiative "Concrete Change") approached Habitat for Humanity, as well as several other not-for-profits involved in building low income homes, and suggested the development of a set of standard accessibility features in every home produced. At first they called the set of features "basic home access" but later adopted the term "Visit-ability" after hearing the term used in England for a similar concept. Through the group's persistence and the Habitat board's willingness to listen, the first seven Visit-able Habitat homes in the Atlanta area were built in 1990.

In terms of providing physical access to housing, Visit-ability advocates seek to take an important step beyond standard housing design, particularly for single-family detached houses and townhouses (row houses) which are not covered by the Fair Housing Act. It might seem to some that Visit-ability advocates are settling for less than they should in not seeking full access. But the majority of builders and homeowners see no need for any access to homes at all, except for those built for a specific occupant with a disability. When asked about the difference between pursuing Visit-ability as a design standard and pursuing a higher goal (i.e. a fully accessible or universally designed home), Eleanor takes a pragmatic perspective:

"What I'm after here is radically changing the way all new houses are built ... and if you're going to do that, you can't have a long list of demands.”

And about not advocating for full access, again Eleanor is firm:

"What I'm passionate about is getting those basic changes made as quickly and broadly as possible, and in doing that, I'm looking at the reality of what (housing) is going up, not what (theoretically) should be...there are a lot of grass roots efforts out there who've done really well ... and we're looking to build a bridge between those grass roots (efforts) and the limited number of professionals we've found who are excited about the concept of Visit-ability and about the prospect of seeing it move very quickly from being an idea to being ‘applied Visit-ability’ or, in other words, bricks and mortar."

Figure 1: A Visit-able neighborhood in Decatur, GA. Because these houses are closely grouped together and have step-less entrances, it makes it much easier for neighbors, of all abilities, to visit each other.