Today the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation published its "Universal Design Guide".  With this guide, the CMHC is informing and inspiring architects, developers and builders to implement Universal Design in their projects.

We hail this as a welcome initiative, even though it does not mandate Universal Design.  To be clear, we UD to be a requirement across the country, and so we are asking the federal government to mandate the standard rather than merely recommend it as a guideline.

Here is the CMHC's summary of the Guide:

..........................

Housing needs change over time as people move through different stages of life.  Our new Universal Design Guide illistrates universal design features for multi-unit residential buildings.  This helps builders, designers and developers create housing that responds to current and future housing needs.

Universal design residential buildings, for example, are:

• responsive to diverse needs and abilities
• marketable and aesthetically pleasing
• flexible and adaptable designs that anticipate needs
• are innovative and build on existing and future technology

The guide won't be used for National Housing Strategy program and funding requirements.  Instead, it's meant to be an illustrative tool showing you the benefits of universal design features. [our emphasis]

..........................

For the full report click on this link.

In our next update we will address the new CMHC guide and state the Accessible Housing Network's position on it, so please stay tuned to find out how we can build upon this important initiative.

Thank you for signing our petition, and if you haven't yet, please consider doing so.  Also, as we surpass 100 signatures, please continue sharing this petition as widely as possible, and to invite others to sign it as well.