“New Homes This Way” read the gyrating sign, with an arrow pointing just up the street to a new housing development. As Bill and his wife Jill waited for the light to change so they could go about their day, their attention shifted – not to the gyrating sign itself, but to the day-glow purple shaggy gorilla suit incasing an exuberantly dancing person on the street corner twirling the large sign. As they laughed at the comical sight, they were instantly hooked, (the developer’s ploy had worked!) and they soon found themselves in the parking lot just outside the model homes.

Jill enthusiastically exits the car stopping by the trunk to remove bills wheelchair. As Bill exits the car and mounts his wheelchair he feels his enthusiasm begin to diminish. As he pushes himself closer to the model home he knew much of this adventure was going to be a solo ride. As they toured the model homes Jill would head upstairs to see the sights, returning with tales of beautiful bathrooms, lots of closet space and large rooms. Not wanting to rain on her parade Bill would refrain from mentioning that he could not get his chair through a bathroom door, turn on the kitchen faucet, reach the microwave above
the stove and the host of other disabling features this home had. No, bill would only smile and lovingly say “What a nice home”. Thankfully, there is a happier story to tell – one in which Bill and Jill and everyone else with accessibility needs is able to go out and find the home of their dreams…

Envision living in the perfect home with no disabling features… one that fits your individual accessibility needs to a tee. Now imagine going out and finding that home as easily as a person who has no accessibility concerns. Sounds crazy right? Well that dream is closer than you think. A new standard of building has been developed and is available now to caring new home developers. This system gives home developers the tools necessary to properly serve
people with accessibility needs. This new way of building will improve your quality of life by giving you the accessibility you need, relieving you of the frustrations you face daily and allowing you to live freely and more independently.

In order for this dream of accessible housing to succeed, there are six disabling factors that must be properly addressed. Over the course of this article and an article to follow, we will discuss these issues and offer solutions that could change the way you use your home! We will begin with the first three issues: accessibility, cost effectiveness and the mainstream market.

The first topic we will address is accessibility. For this article we will define accessibility as the unobstructed movement throughout a home. For years accessibility issues have been addressed using the concept of Universal Housing which is the belief that one standard can be used to fill the accessibility needs of everyone. The Universal Housing Design movement while noble, is fundamentally flawed (Let the controversy begin) in that it believes one size
fits all. The truth is people come in all different shapes and sizes; add to that the numerous ways in which a person can be disabled and their individual accessibility needs and there is no way one size can fit all.

A better approach to accessibility is the concept of Simplified Disabled Housing developed by Aaron Lema. Simplified Disabled Housing believes in individualized accessibility. This system of building allows you to choose the height, width; depth and style of the components of your home, helping you better meet every accessibility need. Simplified Disabled Housing was developed on the belief that people’s disabilities can be removed (or greatly reduced) if the
features of the home that are causing the disability are addressed properly.

The next great issue is that of cost effectiveness. The Universal Housing Design is indeed a cost effective way of building accessible housing; which is why it is so widely regarded as a solution to the accessibility problem. But in reality, if you don’t fit into the one size fits all category, and your specific needs are not met with this universal plan, then in the end how cost effective is it really? Simplified Disabled Housing addresses two of the biggest concerns in cost effective accessibility.

First, purchasing a home from a major developer offering our simplified accessibility features saves you the expense of custom building or extensive remodeling. Builders have the benefit of economies of scale on their side; they build thousands of homes and purchase materials and labor at discounted rates which will save you thousand on the cost of your home. Plus, our patented system of threes does not over complicate a builder’s construction process, which
allows them to mass-produce a home (which keeps the prices down) while still customizing the plans to meet individual accessibility needs. This new system will finally give you the freedom you deserve, not to mention the satisfaction you will receive from getting to tour model homes with the same excitement and optimism as your able-bodied friends.

And finally the mainstream market provides very limited access to people with disabilities. The old way of purchasing new homes from the developer at fair market value then spending thousands of additional dollars making the home accessible is soon to be over! The goal of Simplified Disabled Housing is to give you and everyone else an equal purchasing opportunity. Simplified Disabled Housing even gives new home developers the benefits of offering its customized options to all new home buyers not just people with accessibility needs, which in turn allows them to spread the cost of accessibility over the entire market. More importantly, this allows you to you purchase your new home at the same market price as a non-accessible buyer because our options
are included in the builders plans and do not have an effect on the final price. In bringing Simplified Disabled Housing to the mainstream market we help provide a home that adapts to every need – accessibility is no longer a luxury!

Look out for our follow up article detailing how the mainstream market views people with accessibility needs, how to change that view and how people with accessibility needs can become valuable in the mainstream market.

To find more information on how Simplified Disabled Housing works for both home buyers and home developers, please visit our website: www.SimplifiedDisabledHousing.com.

Help us bring accessibility to your town – talk to your local developer about implementing our system!

Aaron Lema

Contact: aaron@SimplifiedDisabledHousing.com
Aaron Lema
CEO
Lema, Brady and Lema, LLC