MCIL News Release Archive
				National ADAPT
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				Tennessee ADAPT
				Not Dead Yet!
				B F M S

Aug. 19, 1998

Contact: Tim Wheat
(901) 726-6404

Basic access is now the law of the land for newly constructed single family homes, duplexes and triplexes which receive financial assistance from the City of Austin, Texas. The City Council unanimously passed a Visitability Ordinance on Wednesday October 7, 1998. The ordinance requires that such housing make minor adjustments in the construction including:

• One no-step entrance (may be at the front, back, side or through the garage),

• All doors (including bathroom) are at least 32 inches wide,

• Halls and other rooms are at least 36 inches wide,

• Reinforcements in bathroom walls around the toilet and bathtub/shower for installing grab bars,

• Light switches and other environmental controls between 15 and 48 inches from the floor.

"This basic access will be the first step toward the day when people with disabilities can VISIT and freely socialize with neighbors and friends in each others homes" said ADAPT organizer Cathy Cranston. "It leads to the day when renting a house, growing older in one's own home, becoming temporarily disabled or having a child with a disability will be that much easier because more and more homes will have this basic -- visitability -- level of access."

Housing with four or more units (built after 1991) must meet a somewhat stronger degree of accessibility, often referred to as adaptability, under the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988. Housing with five or more units that received any federal financial assistance must meet more stringent access requirements of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as outlined in the Uniform Federal Accessibility Standards, UFAS.

"I'm proud that Austin is the second city in the nation to adopt this type of ordinance," ADAPT organizer Jennifer McPhail said. "We used Atlanta, the first city, as a model and the information we got from there and from the group Concrete Change was a big help."

"As a builder with 10 years of experience in building affordable housing for Habitat for Humanity in Atlanta and the son of a disabled veteran, I am keenly aware that wheelchair accessible housing is both inexpensive to construct and practical in almost 95% of all new homes built" Paul Locascio of Decatur GA wrote when he estimated his average cost for making a new home visitable at $265.

After holding public hearings, a focus group for builders, developers, realtors and several months of meetings to work out the details, city staff proposed the ordinance which will take effect November first.

For more info call Texas ADAPT: (512) 442-0252

54 million Americans have some level of disability, 26 million people have a severe disability. [Current Population Reports. U.S. Department of Commerce - Census Bureau. Aug. 1997 p. 70-61]

News Release: July 27, 1998: Greyhound settles an ADA complaint brought pro se by an ADAPT activist.

News Release: April 20, 1998 Individual asserts civil rights in federal court Dog guides accepted in Memphis taxis

The Memphis Center for Independent Living
1633 Madison Avenue, Memphis, TN 38104
(901) 726-6404 v/tty (901) 726-6521 fax
mcil@mcil.org 

MCIL is a United Way of the Mid-South member Agency

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