We have 13 students all over campus, the coordinators office, school of architecture,
and have been doing a wonderful job helping us throughout the conference for
the past two days. I ask you to join me in thanking thanking the people who
made this possible.
I wanted to remind you that you have evaluations in your packet and we would like you to complete those and leave at the registration desk. We recycle name tags, if you don't have a strong urge to keep them forever you can leave with us. At the registration desk. I turn it over to jack nas.
Thank you, welcome, Jennifer forgot to thank someone very important who worked tirelessly, Jennifer herself.
I am pleased to introduce the next speaker. We started to think about -- one person I called to get names of people to be our keynote speakers. Dick is a senior partner for the center your universal design, North Carolina stat state university. He's dealt with housing, commercial, also editing a special edition of the journal on universal design. He's been very helpful in this conference. I would like him to come up and give his talk on -- I don't actually have a title, but housing and universal design. Welcome.
Dick Dunn can: Good morning and thank you. I actually see a lot of kinds of housing, not just affordable. Some of that, some of other. Recently I have been thinking about changing my career. In the past couple months I talked to people, heard stories that reinforce. There seems to still be an awful lot of a gnashing of teeth, rending of clothes over the issues of universal design as you can imagine, we will talk about it rererelaxation therapy, relaxation relaxation thereap y, I think we need to relax. People are mired in -- special people, special character characteristics here, and normal people over here. Special features, special building buildings over here and regular architecture over here and the chasm between, rather than recognizing we exist in a multiple parallel domain, things change over time, daily, over our lifetime, rerelax about these differences and just think about people as people and get on with it. >>
I would like to get on with this, let's see if I can do this. This is still 1, trying to go to slide 2. Universal home and communities is my theme, and -- Most fully expresses this old style thinking of housing, most of the housing is -- out there, it's single-family detached, built to the point, still principlely 100 years old or more. Whether living or building small single family homes, rural areas, more traditional homes in subdivisions; on tiny lots in new traditional communities, or row houses perhaps that are also being found in these large sometimes mixed communities. All of these still seem to be built on the paradigm of traditional housing, not recognizing the diversity of people that will live in them over the life-time of the building. Housing is an area that requires a lot of attention and I will spend some time talking about that today. I will talk about housing at the beginning, housing at the end, and in between I will talk a little about neighborhoods and commune it communities, challenges, new in the past 10 years or so. So
So I won't be going into tremendous details, but I will spend time on this challenging issue, an echo of Steve Lafferty -- and very traditional subdivision, suburban area in orange county, in c no sidewalks. Collection of different builders.
As you look at this house with this picture here, single family detached at the to be. You see it doesn't look that special or different, exactly the point. If you have seen this in other presentations you get that. Doesn't call attention to itself but it's a very universal home. You can see from the floor plan up there, again, nothing in there looks particularly different from usual. A lost open plan, typical, master wing, guest wing, two-story house, from my perspective, fine about it. We think in the yrentior the builder went a little crazy. People pick five or six things they get excited about. With a house like this they might have done better to choose fewer than more. They have the master bathroom, guest rooms, laundry, all those functionary -- important. But he also had other things which may not have been quite as much of a -- as he thought. A very interesting closet installation, indicated in the upper rnd corner, which was pretty high-tech, very unusual, functional, but more than people want to wanted to see.
However, the young retired couple that moved in were very please pleased with it. Here's a side view of the house. Project we did in combination with -- association, and we did very Simle things. Added a breezeway, you can see next to the garage door, there again, goes from the drive way up to the front porch, level with the first floor, covered. A closer picture of that. Very Sim simple, very universal access. There's the front porch, looking back from the breezeway on the other side. Again, also has stairs coming up to the front porch. My sense is very few people will take the time to walk around the garage, probably going up the breezeway. Front door looking from inside, very average kind of house, looks nice, typical market rate house.
Here's another house, also helped the builder work on this, far fewer features, in a more dense subdivision, not that far away. Higher priced place, about $250,000 for the other, this is about 350,000, mixed-use, sidewalks, strawnt, supermarket not too far away. This is a cul-de-sac lot, couldn't get someone in the backdoor. Okay, but we did fill and exkaffation to bring the level up in the back to drive the car in the garage, directly into the house. Little platform into the backdoor and into the house, without much trouble getting into the site. Different subdivisions, different approaches, entrance option, open plan, wider doorways, hall ways, master suite, bathing area inside. That's it. Interesting , this house, things we think about, low cost, low impact from a builder perspective, but high comfort and usability from the user perspective, up to 18 inches above the graded floor. He was add he was adamant that he wasn't going to do that. The out thees going up, hard to figure sometimes, hair pulling, all the -- the folk s that bought it were young family, knew nothing about features down the line. Developing including with homeowners, packages with information about your appliances, why not something that tells you about universal design features you may or may not notice. You can chew on that.
Still another single family detached house, this time in -- a smaller lot, single-story house, worked with the grade. You can see going up, curves around that sclub ree there, level with the first floor, roof overhang, exterior design. Looks different from all the other houses around, all the others are different from one another, this is the only one with usability features. Three occupies, only one recognizing the features, and affected purchasing decision. The motherrer mother mother of the wife moved in for a while and was able to take advantage of the features.
Another house showing another rear access, front, rear, makes no difference, with full basement. An issue, full basement, crawl space, slab on grade, how do you deal with these challenges. Let's move on.
One of the sectors of housing we hear the most interest from is those folks concerned with building houses for older people. We would like to think more housing is done with better standards. I consider the first, original senior housing project done, the delwebb, outside of Phoenix. Cu : You can visit it today, a little sclien, Del Webb Construction, you go inside, see features remarkably similar to what you see in houses today. These fixtures and colors may not be to your taste but I challenge you to find -- from now.
Dryer, cabinets, sink, range, gas, front controls, that's nice, but is it really different in fundamental ways from what you see now? That's what I find remarkable, there isn't much.
Here's a project done by a -- just East of here, wonderful project. A duplex, slab on grade house, gracious spaces inside, wider doorways, you can get into -- you can see how they worked grade change into this. >>
This is a 3-slide sequence of a 1-story gable roofed house. Retaining wall. Next slide. In affordable housing we hear lots of comments that it can't be done in affordable housing, or we hear that it's only affordable housing. Isn't this stuff just about low-next, people think that's all it is. On the other hand it's too expense expensive. Anybody here from St. Louis? This is urban infill, in-city area, two-story homes with full basements, and they man and managed to -- parking in the back, to make this relatively simple. Right up to the back porch and inside. Because they are relatively small homes -- bath, kitchen, laundry, current design is still there, not perfect, but goes a long way towards making the houses more useable throughout far more periods in their lives.
Here's some photographs from Ohio State University. So whether you have packages or books in your hand, can't use the round doorknob so prevalent in homes, iewsh rushing for soccer practice, tripping because your stairs don't have handrails, circumstantial, to say activity and environment really impede what you are trying to do or make your life more unsafe. These are simple problems to solve.
Mom walking in from the garage to the hall way with packages in her hands, not having to K4R50EU78 stairs, make its easier for her. A guy moving in new furch furniture, this is not just people through individual changes, but living your life every day. Or even, who is that, El nor Smith, going into her home, virtually all the homes in the neighborhood have a floor-level entrance, a lot more accommodating.
Elea nor talked about some of these things. If you have the options of where to place homes on sites obviously it makes a difference. People have this myth that flat is always good, particularly if you are building houses with some -- foundation. You work with the grade you can often get a better outcome. Rather than drive to the low side you can shift 209 upside and have a much easier ake easier ake easier accommodation.
This is the biggest challenge, the Earth berming bridge, a relatively flat site, crawl-space, up 30 or so inches, and this particular solution you have a retaining wall, berm against it, swail between to have drainage, how it might look in one particular house with a nice wooden bridge, railings, porch level with roof overhang. Next slide.
This is another image, from Atlanta, has the porch itself, brick and concrete retaining wall to keep the Earth from the house, very effective way to do this, virtually level at the -- slope going down to the back, very effective mechanism to make that happen. Another picture of a high-end house we did yrentior design work on, the Better Homes and Gardens bliewpt house. They packed a lot in. No way to get reasonable access in for someone finding find someone with trouble K4R50EU78ing stairs, the drive way gets you up the hill, and you can see here this person is about to turn their wheelchair on to the path that goes up to the back porch. It's a very simple, expedient method of getting in the door without having to worry so much. It really isn't the case with commercial buildings when primary entrance access or all entrance access is what you want to be having. Not much compromise there. In homes I think there's a different -- in single detached particularly.
Another with stairs going to the front door. You would think the same thing, the grade slopes up the back to driveway, path going around to the front porch, which is level with the first floor, porch oarve overhang to protext people from the -- different ways to make entering the house easier. Seems to be the biggest cost challenge, the interiors don't present the same challenge. I know there issues with respect to floorplan, square footage and we will talk about that, but this really is the big deal. It's not just about large-scale things, site, locating driveways, flipping, moving dirt. It's also small things like packet -- our slide udv, an older man with a walker, about to put packages down, something we all do on a daily basis, fumbling with keys. If you are not able to put things down, if you are it's just a has hassle. The young man after soccer practice doesn't fall down the stairs. handrails on both sides, shaped like your hand and not a 2 by --
This is the image that is my most -- picture, I hope. Interior garage wall showing electric panel, to remind us where you place that panel, where you put it in a location for people to get to can make a big difference. Usually behind the washer, a dark space you can't get at. The location someone can get to can make a big difference.
Interior circulation is pret pretty simple and basic, hall ways that are 30" inches and doorways that are three feet. We are really recommending -- doors where you can work it in, that much more flexibility.
We work with builders in projects with houses in all sizes and price points. Will universal design in housing at whatever level. Million dollar homes and other projects that are very modest sized homes. In this project, and this is the slide that shows the floorplan, three bed rooms, our challenge was to take the standard plan, the one you see here, about 1200 square feet and convert it to a more useable plan, the key issue. At that point working with habitat, if we were at the front, add 150 more square feet to make it universal -- took the challenge, did a fairly good job I think. Dealing with very small homes, you are not going to be able to put as many features. With affordable housing you can't put in, frankly, some of the very expensive appliances and things that can make your house nicer and easy tore easier to use, but can still get features that are accommodating now, save tons of money, don't have to rip apart the bathroom or build the unattractive ramp that will be going away in two months. To look at how we cheated the kitchen wall down a little, the bathroom, and you still have 1 and a half baths, not much with the hall way, a little compromising on our own guidelines on that.
Still have a 1 and a half bath, 3 bed room house with the spaces substantially the same size except for the tiny bathroom isn't as teeny tiny how. Toil et in corner is fine, some maneuver room in there, we had to cament capture space under the counter. Don't confuse this with a fully accessible fully ake accommodated house. Accommodating more people throughout their life. Same footprint. If you had more space you could do more. A different style, still 3-bed rooms. Included my green -- in this floor plan. For one of the first times in recent memory, a pocket door. Didn't use them for a longtime. You know full well they really solve a lot of interior space problems. Why? Because of the maintenance and -- issues. They come off their tracks, stuck half open, half closed. Now that -- you get these double roller systems, back to recommending pocket droors. This house went there single bath, to a bath and half by -- you have to reverse doors, sometimes pocket doors makes a difference, you can do a pretty good job in most cases. It really gave us the security of saying you can almost do a more universal room of any size house. Interior spaces, really getting in from outside that remains the problem.
Another bathroom, slightly larger. More options more people transferring.
This is the second floor bathroom of one of our two demonstration dem vaigz demonstration homes in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Big, fansy, and across the street a very narrow small Foote print house. Assistive technology, to add stairs, a left at some point to help people touring the houses. The designer chose to have a sink permanently open and fill that with with a little seat device, a nice lilght little -- on the wall for hanging.
This is interior of a house you saw the outside of. Shows features the builder put in, raised dishwasher, everything thinks that's the height of high-concept design. May not be to your taste. Seems to offer a lot of benefits to a lot of people in not having to bend over. Back trouble is an issue that is not talked about a lot, but makes a big impact in the house.
Next to that, kitchen even kitchen cabinets, slide that urn that under the sink, or slide doors back underneath, give someone knee space. Not fully accessible, the counter isn't lower than 36 inches, but takes us in the direction --
Here's a couple of high-end options that might not be so high-end in the future. Front loading washers and dryers are a remarkable thing, extra work surface space, build them into a wall system, have them work well. First slide shows an older woman, my mom, in the demonstration house, and a young lady in a wheelchair doing the same thing. Transferring from the washer to the dryer. The manufacturers got the message, we were putting things on pedestals, they came out with models that had pedestals. Built into a little cabinet system. Not all of these front loaders have front controls. You have to be careful.
A raised fire place, this one is gas -- to tend the fire.
kitchens, storage is an area that's been coming into universal design a longtime. These systems are coming out to accommodate newly constructed homes, came out because of closet efficiency. Closets are note are noter noter yowsly inefficient. Shelves, makes a big difference and takes advantage of space. We are happy to see things that are universal are sold on a different basis. You hear saz advertised all the time. No one talks about universal design. They say, energy efficiency, saving water, cleaner sloaght clothes, less har sh treatment of --
Bi-fold doors, cu you can get inserts, more useable, you don't have to spend the money for a whole new closet system or just put justable height closet poles, you can move it up and down, an image of a bracket -- once again, a reminder for electric box location issue. This is in a hall way, and LEFT you think we are not trying to accommodate this lady, she's about 4 feet tall, trying to get it as low as we can. Again, not just electric panel, also heating and ventilating, lights, as this stuff goes together it's basic, front-end stuff. How much does it cost? A lot is very little.
We also have this other issue, if you bring things within reach, maybe people whose cognitive ability makes it hard to -- the location of this electric panel may be fine if you have a household with no kids, may not be with a house with kids reaching up. Some of these things reachable by adults, but not accessible to children. You don't want to create more problems than we --
Here's a wonderful 7 principle, this is as fancy as I get. I didn't do this. Seven principles here that we derive a lot of our ideas and guidelines from. If you don't have copies of these you can get them online. They are pretty readily available in many areas. We don't necessarily teach the principles in sessions like this, but it's the basis from which these come. My opinion, most of the principles, a lot with ergonomics, principle -- dealing with the issue of how do you make all of this appealing in a marketplace. Something useable and desirable.
That's an issue to pay attention to.
We hope it creates -- design and -- the idea in the housing area, consistent with that. Moving into community design now. Most of us live in suburbs and rural parts of the country, by percentages and numbers, a lot of us in area s that may not offer a lot of -- for growing old. An issue that's coming up down the line. Often what happens is we are creating problems that we may experience ourselves, and real problems for folks at different folks during their lives.
For kids that don't drive, older folks that don't drive or shouldn't drive, they are compelled to drive many years after they might have otherwise given up risking her life and other people's, dealing with the necessary of having a car. Everything is designed around car use.
Car-oriented street with no clear sense of how to get across safely. Then shows an older person standing at a curb cut, good things in the infrastructure, just highlights the issue. Diverse land land use, suburban areas made just for cars, intersections that are wide and folks have a hard time crossing them. I am really happy to see timed cross-walks, you have a sense of how long you have. Makes sense. With this you need two or three minutes. I'm sure there's an interesting story here about the lady in California who was ticketed or something for taking too long to cross the street. The other side to that, I'm sure. Something is wrong here. We need to be doing a better job of ake accommodating people in real-life situations.
We like sidewalks, we like slower street traffic, safety crossing, and access by a number of means. And also, how about some housing people can use, choices in housing, affordable, market rate, so people can actually have choice, make a change in house in housing.
The suburban transportation system, solving the problems of community design made yirr years ago. Heavy traffic, highlights the problem. Issues like this, a lot of the initial thinking was done in response to federal laws, state laws, extensively to respond to issues of people with disabilities. These days not so true. Reality is hitting you in the face. Segues, there was here, someone using that. My wife and I take our segways in, impediments on environment. They are out, we see them in cities, people use them, need them, makes a difference. Scooters, they have exploded in use in the past 20 years. We have helped design nursing homes, they have scooter parking areas incoarptd in the design. Not just a single kind of folk that benefit from all these features.
An area that's pedestrian friendly, it goes on and on, the interconnected benefit of these features.
this poor man, stands, an image from the past. Luggage in one hand, computer case on shoulder, brief case, struggling, slogging through the airport. Really having a hard time. How wonderful it is now -- a sex change operation, rolling luggage, demock rattizing -- everyone has rolling luggage. What's accommodating for me and a lot of other people. Remineds people as they travel about what places and spaces are more useable than others.
Comments yesterday were good, not spending a lot of time talking about the needs of people with vision impairments, a worthy comment I was pleased to note, they are dealing with, taking up some of the slack. This is a big issue, safety in urban and suburb suburban areas, a guide dog, and a cain. We have a long way to go to get consistent features to help people navigate themselves through the urban scene. It's important. We think things that help one group really do help other groups. Someone using a wheelchair, also help the household that -- I struggled carrying my daughter. Infinitely justable seating, allowing people to -- as they need to. Stroller Strollers, features that accommodate everybody without drawing attention to itself. >>
This is an illustration of the Dakota toil et that I think Ron and Leslie probably worked on. It actually exists, of course, a photograph of our friend Marcelle on, marcello, very simple elegant self-contained, does it's job, useable by everybody, wonderful feature in the environment. Once you get into rerecreation areas, strolling, rolling areas everybody can use. A woman about to sit down, some park benches, for someone who may have trouble with flexibility in hips or knees, doesn't want to sit down so far, may have trouble getting up again, higher seat, shorter seat, handrails extended, may be specific. In a collection with other benches it has a nice universal -- it's an item or feature in combination with others that can really take you to a place you need to be. People with disabilities, non-disabled user users, everyone seems to benefit.
This is an image taken in a park in Raleigh, care cary. A dad with his kids in the sand box, the dad using the chair, useable by everybody.
Another image from Japan, a depressed walkway and seating area, extends out into a pond, people can sit, reach the water, see the water. Have vision or no vision you are standing, seated, you have access to the experience of being in that space, not just something that's for the -- >>
We do have a choice in how we create environments -- help us maintain health, independence, self-worth. Everybody is included often as possible in the outdoor environments, urban environments, and housing as well. When you look at this list, universal communities, seeing your friendly, pedestrian friendly, not a lot here to suggest anything other than what we talked about. A lot of these design ideas, concepts, fit well with the universal design concept. Mixed-use, dense, sidewalks. I stole this from the -- you look at the difference between the top slide and bottom slide. If you add sidewalks, street-crossings, may be smart growth, but adds a lot to the universal design outcomes as well.
Then this, in chapel hill, North Carolina, one of new highly regarded mix-use community, very nice looking, I have a picture here of the town square here. You can see there's apartments in buildings to the left, apartments in the buildings to the right. I am taking a picture from ang apartment balcony, all accessible by elevator. Retail below, round-about, strawnts, bookstores, kinds of stores, grocery, you sidewalks. The whole community can get around. Someone commented the street crossings are too wide. Think about that. But a tiny tiny fraction of the homes here have usability features. They have the terrific infrastructure, mix saided uses, opportunity to be part of the community, but the house housing in them doesn't work well. Particularly for an aging community. It's a mixed message for these communities being built. Real constraints and issues in some regards.
The building geometry, giver if first floors raised off the ground, and the distance from building to street to sidewalk. Doesn't offer many opportunities for changing the status quo. However, cu you can look ataly at alleys, a lot of communities built on basis of traditional design. >> O l d e r models with stairs going up, close to the street, often not accessible, like in the older days. >>
Here you have first-floor entrance, you can render -- not that much difficulty in these very traditional designs, so you can do stuff if you think about it. Other row houses, from Atlanta, allowing people to live together, work together, comien communicate, another traditional project. Stairs up to front porches, looks like a challenge, what will they do about that? Ramp at one end to get you up to that front porch level, lets you get to any dwelling, any space within. Another very old design in Washington D.C. , stairs going to front. Think about what you can do from other locations. I see this time and time again; even in older comiewfnity communities, alley access that could be used -- a cattle picture. Stairs going to the front almost always render more accessible if you think about getting in from the back.
Brand-new project in North Carolina, with very traditional brick fronted stately row houses going down, ideas. More of a challenge, the thal the alley is going down. Later you could put an elevator in, but it's a challenge for some of these.
In some of them, maybe half a dozen in this project seem to have level access to ground floor. There opportunities called it low-hanging fruit. You can install, design units that you wouldn't otherwise think are possible. Another project from Seattle. Duplexes, gray duplex with garage from the street. Level access on a couple sides of that. Others of these units going down the line in this project. Didn't take advantage of the grade, high side, missed those opportunities. Tiewngt opportunities missed by -- I think you could have -- conventional designs with a welcoming style that really allows for people to integrate with their community, family, and on an individual family level, we talked about this again, and I will mention it now, eliminates the need for expensive renovation. You may have some renovation, customization, that's inef itable, but the tearing the bathroom apart, widening doorways and halls, cost so much, the problem and heartache, they have to consider staying in a place they like being, and moving to an uncertain place. Finally, about saving -- and medical dollars. It's a societal issue. We care about social security financial problems, Medicare, Medicaid, this is all -- you see the demographics of -- yesterday. We think we love to see all you researchers in the audience prove this, if you live in homes with these better accommodation better accommodation better accommodations it will result in fewer health costs, fewer accidents.
We can take questions from people here or online. >> >>
okay, first question --
>>
the question is about the challenges, retrofitting existing homes. You saw a lot of new construction. We have done a lot of work with people living in existing places where -- I think I mentioned this, living in Peter Pan homes, as if you would never get old or change. It's a problem. Old home renovation is expensive. Remodelling for accessibility is no less expensive. There may be a lot of tricks. The biggest doesn't involve cost, it involves doing it right. What's the right change to make for a household? Who do you involve? The right skill set? Getting experienced contractors, why we get so involved in education. The national association of homebuilders has a certified aging in space specialist, they advertise there graduates on the website. Other people here spend a lot of time educating builders, as we do, the basics, differences between standard remodelling and elder mod remodel. It's getting the right people, skill sets, decisions. >> >>
Are we talking to realtors, that's a good question. A collection of persons important in that nexus of issues. You have builders, architects, yrentior designers, realtors selling the property, appraisers appraising the property. Do they know what they are looking at? How about inspectors, do they know what they are looking at? The lenders, do they understand urns yiewfersdz houses? We recognize, we did a program 10 years ago, haven't been able to reinvigorate, doing work now -- I should mention. You may be aware, I am not. We are working with a real estate professional now who has created what I think is the nation's first universal design marketing website. If you get in touch with me I would be happy to send you to her website, making the first steps towards getting a venue to market homes build accessibly. >>
Question from Canada, how would I find ready-made accessible housing in Toronto, Canada? Is there a list?
I am not an expert, maybe someone here knows? Sorry. >>
what is the -- for builder and -- new developments and attitudes of consumers that buy into universal design -- that is really the 800800-pound gorilla. We don't have enough funding, reach, resource, to go out and do massive public relations campaigns. We rely on the aarp, they do as good a job as anybody educating the consumers. Would be great if we had people flocking to builders staying I want a house just like my neighbor, maybe not the one I see in your showroom. Have the push come forth and with a dead certain response. We need a lot of public education. Multimedia, electronic, print, to convince people it's a kind of housing they can live in. The incentive for people, builders now, the prospect they will put stuff out, build effectively. We have heard a lot of positive stuff, and a little sometimes that people help see the effort is rewarded. We see people really responding well, they want more of it. >> >>
A question from from our Brazilian friend, who presented yesterday. Not fair for you to be asking me that question. How do we translate this type of message to other audiences, places? It's a challenge. We have these international conferences to bring people together and talk about these differences. What is the most effective way to bring this message to a BRs Brazillian audience? I'm willing to learning. Do you have -- I will talk back to the group. >> >> >>
Yes, it's an excellent issue we need to be thinking about. Your comment was there are people in Brazil without homes, substandard housing. Clearly the audience of folks who lives in what you might call affordable housing are everyone more impacted by hilght health problems than other sectors. May not be able to afford even the basics >> >> >>
The question is are we or is anyone thinking about certifying ud homes in the way of certified energy star homes. It's been asked 500 times, but never answer. There are programs out there, easy living concept that began in Georgia, spreading around, designates, I think, homes as Easy Living Quality homes. We need to jump on this, develop a verification program, with the logistical challenges, and have someone say I have a ud house, these criteria, good for marketing material and so on. I will do this before I finish, one more related thing -- & % F 0 I w i s h I c ould tell you, about zoning specifically. I would have defer to red to my friend Steve yesterday morning, but zoning can be an impediment to this. We would like to see more effective zoning mechanisms in place. One I learned of more recently, near Atlanta, also focuses on senior targeted housing, gives trade-offs for building senior targeted, released from some constraints. If you are doing the right thing you can get relieve rerelief process in the permanent or density. >> >>
Question from online, Susan Mac from California. Talk about how people can work in their own communities with -- to create in70 incentives to create ud. I didn't include this, it's another sector. Our colleagues at university of southern California, those folks have talked about coalition building on a local level to get the otherwise disparate groups together. The It's an effective strategy to move forward. >>
Janet, behind you. That's a great thought, okay, Leslie. >> >> >>
there's two mechanisms. One is using leverage of federal funding to community
development, block funds, home funds, accessibility built in, and you have some
local voice, how the money is spent through the state and local process. You
can have a voice in that process. Leslie mentioned finance agencies often control
tax credit funding, on a state-by-state basis these agencies sometimes do a
good job leveraging the tax credit financing toward accessibility, not universal
maybe, but accessibility features. To close, I have I am happy to talk to people
afterwards. Coming up, driving activities, 2007 marks -- the universal design
principles, folks around the country to figure this out. Over the next year
there's a reexamination, methodical process to look at, and meetings, public
meetings culminating in June of 07. I would like to -- to get universal design,
applying to housing, talking in