Just as most of us enjoy standard plumbing, we deserve standard design for housing.

Ableism gives preferance to abilities which are considered "normal".  This explains why we fail to appreciate different abilities and instead try to fit the ideal mold.

Thus while we may celebrate our differences and talk about "inclusion" we hardly change our behaviour and environment.  We continue to build homes for able-bodied people and, for the most part, ignore "Universal Design" principles.

Universal Design aims to provide housing which accommodates people of all ages and abilities -- thereby including elders and persons with disabilities.

Join the Accessible Housing Network (AHN) in asking the Canadian government to adopt Universal Design as the standard for its National Building Code, just as Australia has recently done.  It would require all provinces, territories and municipalities to follow suit.

AHN believes that building apartments to accommodate diverse needs -- at no additional cost, according to a CMHC study -- would virtually eliminate the excessive costs of later renovations for the elderly, and make them more valuable on resale. Freeing up seniors' homes for younger generations struggling to enter the housing market would in fact be an added bonus. 

Adopting a Universal Design standard can thus help Canada make housing not only more accessible but also more affordable -- which everyone wants and needs.

Join AHN's campaign for a Universal Design Standard in Canada by signing and sharing this petition.  We will tell your MPs that you want a high standard for housing design, and ask them to support this initiative.

Please follow our progress in future updates.