Universal Design: Homes Visitable to All

Ruth Gold learned the hard way that the split-level home she bought in East Meadow in the 1950s was not accessible to everyone when her late husband, Bernard, fell and broke his hip some years ago and needed to use a wheelchair.

"We had to modify our home," she said. They put in a ramp to the front door, but the contractor who built the ramp apparently did not know that for each inch of height, you need a foot in length. "It was too steep," she said.

Since then, Gold, director of Hofstra University's Center for Gerontology, has become a proponent of universal design or "visitability," a concept that promotes the design of environments and products to be usable by all people without the need for adaptation for special needs. Twelve years ago, Gold spent about $45,000 -- the same cost as an Elder Suite modular cottage today -- to build a wheelchair accessible bathroom, closet, two ramps and a deck.

Without such design features, a traditional house usually requires significant renovations to accommodate residents with disabilities, particularly wheelchair users. In the Golds' case, for example, doorways needed to be widened to 3 feet to allow a wheelchair to fit through. The bathroom door was wide enough, but because of cabinets in the room, the wheelchair couldn't get in. So they turned the den into his room and built an