Visitability: Housing Advocate’s Life Goal
By Janine Bertram Kemp
Eleanor Smith invented the concept of
"visitability" (aka inclusive home design) and has led the Atlanta, Ga.-based
organization Concrete Change since the mid-1980s. 
After taking part in an ADAPT demonstration for access to
public transit, she thought, “Why can’t we do that for housing?”
Now Smith, nearing 70, is seeking a new home for the visitability movement. She
hopes to find a center for independent living that has the will and resources
to commit to the fight for inclusive home design.
According to Smith, visitability requires that every newly
built home have the following:
- At least one zero-step entrance, at the front, back or
side of the house.
- Main-floor doorways, including bathrooms, at least 32
inches wide. ?
- At least a half bath -- a full bath is preferable -- on
the main floor.
Within the movement, there is confusion about the
difference between inclusive design and universal design (UD). UD is affiliated
with academia and includes a plethora of accessibility features, all equally
weighted. UD features include a lever door handle, knee space under cabinets
and a wide doorway. An architect or builder could pick and choose among UD
features. Thus, the UD mindset is great for a specially built house but not for
policy-driven solutions that affect all new houses. The three requirements of
visitability mean everyone can get into a home and use the bathroom -- or
“Get in and pee,” as Smith says.
There have been other leaders in the struggle for equality
in housing, but Smith -- a quiet, unassuming wheelchair user -- has remained
focused on visitability for the past 25 years.
“One of the things that Eleanor Smith has done for
disability rights is start from nothing, stay true to the grass roots, and
produce the terms and regulations that define how we talk about inclusive home
design,” said Tom Olin, photographer and national disability organizer.
“She has made sure it means access to a community and all its parts.
“It is imperative that Concrete Change continue
because we are still on the threshold, the proverbial doorstep, of finally
making the big developers and regulators be part of the solution instead of
part of the problem.”
Meg Traci of the University of Montana Rural Institute
said that
Smith helped advance academics. “Eleanor got us
'unstuck' here in Montana and gave us a common language to move forward,”
she said.
The story of Concrete Change is that of a seemingly
ordinary person committing to a goal, sticking with it, and altering the world.
A non-disabled architect once said that disability "is not
caused by the physical condition. Disability is caused by the built
environment.” When Smith, grounded in the civil rights movement, heard
that quote, it hit home.
Of course, behind the revelation in that quote were the
myriad life experiences of hurtful discrimination experienced by every person
with a disability. If the disability is mobility-related, the experiences are
about lack of physical access. For Smith, these seminal, hurtful instances
occurred before there were any civil rights protections and at a time when
non-disabled people had little concern for the obstacles others faced.
Sometimes she would be invited to a party at a
friend’s inaccessible house, which took place up a flight of stairs. She
would arrange with her friend to call before leaving home so others would meet
her and carry her up those stairs. When she got there, she would wait awhile in
front of a long staircase until it dawned on her that no one was coming. The
friend had forgotten her. She then would drive back home, take off her party
clothes and spend the evening alone.
Now Smith lives in a co-housing community in Atlanta where
she attends dinners and barbecues, and where she can and does visit her
neighbors. If a neighbor has a crisis, Smith can get in to provide assistance.
In Smith's neighborhood, "every home is visitable," said
Mark Johnson, director of advocacy at Shepherd Center in Atlanta. "She has
accomplished all this while working out of her house. There is a fascinating
history about visitability that is not out there. But if you peel it back and
peel it back, Eleanor’s name is going to show up as the key player. In
many ways she has had more impact than anyone would know. In the next five to
10 years, with the number of aging baby boomers, the demand for inclusive home
design will accelerate.”
Smith has seen visitability laws enacted in about 50
cities and counties around the nation, although the laws are uneven and
enforcement more so. Smith acknowledged that ableism (discrimination or social
prejudice against people with disabilities) has been the unspoken force that
slowed the visitability movement. It takes a person “really getting
it” to create change.
“Visitability only happens in cities, counties and
states because a local person really gets it and decides they have the energy
to press for it," Smith said. "Some (localities) were unsuccessful; they tried
very hard, (but) their bill didn’t pass. But I still say they planted the
seeds. Others had quite a lot of success, striking success, to where two
advocates, a husband-and-wife team from Arizona, got through the first law that
covered all the houses, whether public money was used or not.”
The Arizona law to which she referred covers Pima County,
a community of about 1 million people that includes Tucson. As of September
2010, more than 21,000 visitable homes have been built in Pima County. Yves
Khawam, Pima County’s chief building official, wrote Rep. Maxine Waters,
D-Calif., in support of a national Inclusive Home Design Act. The letter was a
testimonial regarding Pima County’s experience with builders' reactions
and the real estate environment.
“While these requirements were at first resisted by
builders based on the fact that they would require costly changes to
conventional design and construction practices, it became evident that with
appropriate planning, the construction could result in no additional cost,"
Khawam said. "Indeed, the jurisdiction no longer receives builder complaints
regarding the ordinance, and the ordinance has been so well incorporated into
the building safety plan review and inspection processes, that there is no
additional cost to the county to enforce its requirements.
“From a real estate perspective, homes built to this
standard are deemed more marketable, but even more importantly, the accessible
features of these homes remain unnoticed when toured by individuals not seeking
accessibility. One of the initial concerns of the ordinance implementation was
that it would result in homes appearing institutional in nature. This has not
occurred within Pima County. As such, it would seem reasonable to anticipate
like benefits and impacts by extending these requirements on a national level
in line with the proposed Inclusive Home Design Act.”
Clearly, Pima County developers and real estate agents
have learned the benefits of visitability. Smith believes CILs could benefit
from understanding the negative correlation between visitability and
institutionalization.
“Centers for independent living and others in our
movement need to know about visitability,” Smith said. “What are the
strengths and weaknesses of the arguments we make? The strength is visitability
says everybody’s house needs to be accessible. The weakness is we have not
really touted the obvious other half of the picture. You are less likely to be
kicked out of your own house.
“How many people get kicked into nursing homes
because their house lacks access, and we can’t come home to where we live?
With aging baby boomers, the numbers could be staggering. Among older and
younger people, the lack of home access dropkicks people into nursing homes.
The extent to which lack of access in one home is a factor in nursing home
admission is an ill-researched and acknowledged fact.”
Smith’s target retirement date is April 2013. “I
am going to fold the tent and go cold turkey when I turn 70,” she said.
For the CIL that takes on Concrete Change and visitability, she is adamant that
everything be open for discussion. “I want to make it clear that a
complete transition will be taking place, and the only thing I would offer is
technical assistance for that group itself.”
Smith is searching for a large CIL that will be around for
the next 10 years, one with a history of direct action and policy work. She
wants a center “with an ADAPT frame of mind as well as policy
experience.” The center, Smith said, should have enough employees to
afford to assign one, preferably a skilled organizer, who would devote at least
half of his or her working hours to the issue of how new houses are built.
With more baby boomers aging and becoming disabled, the
next 10 years are projected to be an explosive time for inclusive home design.
For a CIL with the resources and commitment, incorporating Concrete Change and
taking the lead on visitability could push it into the forefront of the
independent living movement.
For more information or to contact Eleanor Smith, go to
www.concretechange.org.
Janine Bertram Kemp is a writer and disability rights
advocate who lives in Zig Zag, Ore. She is currently working with Tom Olin on
the Disability Rights Center Photo/Oral History Project. |
