Community Living

Millions of baby boomers are approaching the golden years. While it's a marker worth celebrating, it can also be a reminder of uncertain times ahead. How will I manage? Can I stay in my home? The Accessible Home goes beyond ramps and grab-bars to help aging boomers, or those faced with disabilities, accomplish home accessibility on a deeper level. With a focus on closing the gap between home and homeowner, architect Deborah Pierce leads readers through the steps of universal design--from hiring the right architect to creating a pleasing space with the final details. -publisher

Jeffrey Kerr is a REALTOR with over 17 years of experience in the exciting and very dynamic Toronto Real Estate market. In Barrier Free Real Estate - Achieving Freedom at Home, he shares his knowledge and extensive experience helping clients buy and sell wheelchair accessible houses, condominiums and investment properties.

Designing for Autism Spectrum Disorders explains the influence of the natural and man-made environment on individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other forms of intellectual/developmental disabilities (IDD). Drawing on the latest research in the fields of environmental psychology and education, the authors show you how architecture and interior spaces can positively influence individuals with neurodiversities by modifying factors such as color, lighting, space organization, textures, acoustics, and ventilation. Winner of the 2017 IDEC Book Award, 2017 EDRA Great Places Award (Book Category), 2017 American Society of Interior Designers Joel Polsky Prize and the 2016 International Interior Design Association TXOK Research Award

The age-friendly community movement is a global phenomenon, currently growing with the support of the WHO and multiple international and national organizations in the field of aging. Drawing on an extensive collection of international case studies, this volume provides an introduction to the movement. The contributors - both researchers and practitioners - touch on a number of current tensions and issues in the movement and offer a wide-ranging set of recommendations for advancing age-friendly community development. The book concludes with a call for a radical transformation of a medical and lifestyle model of aging into a relational model of health and social/individual wellbeing. -publisher

Libby, a kid with a disability (KWD) in a power wheelchair, is assigned to write a summer journal for school. She writes about visit-ability, the right of kids and adults with disabilities to be able to visit people in their houses and apartments. She and her friends, Benjamin and Aria, protest at a housing site where non-accessible houses are being built. They make an impact on the future of housing in her community.

This important work explores the full range of factors involved in designing for an aging population—from social, economic, and public health policies to land use, business models, and built form. Ball examines in detail a number of case studies of communities that have implemented lifelong solutions, discussing how to apply these best practices to communities large and small, new and existing, urban and rural. -Publisher

Sometimes designed objects reject their users: a computer mouse that doesn't work for left-handed people, for example, or a touchscreen payment system that only works for people who read English phrases, have 20/20 vision, and use a credit card. Something as simple as color choices can render a product unusable for millions. These mismatches are the building blocks of exclusion. In Mismatch, Kat Holmes describes how design can lead to exclusion, and how design can also remedy exclusion. Inclusive design methods--designing objects with rather than for excluded users--can create elegant solutions that work well and benefit all. -publisher

This is the ultimate resource for individuals and professionals who want to save time, money and energy when designing, building, remodeling or downsizing a home. The Universal Design Toolkit will help you take the steps to design homes for your clients or yourself while eliminating the costly trial and error challenges you'd inevitably encounter if faced with this learning curve on your own. Rosemarie Rossetti, Ph.D., teamed with her husband Mark Leder in creating this unique Toolkit. They bring ten years of research, design and building expertise by serving as the general contractors for their home, the Universal Design Living Laboratory - which is the highest rated universal design home in North America. -publisher

An introduction to visitability.