Stories of Hurricane Katrina rushed toward the six-weeks-after blackout (when the media summarily stops covering a story like this.) Mary Johnson of Ragged Edge Online and Edge-Centric Blog is perplexed. Where are the stories about the need for Universally Designed infrastructure and Visitable housing in the reconstructed area? Will the 17-member "Bring Back New Orleans Commission" build a livable, accessible city?
Read Mary Johnson on rebuilding post-Katrina: Rebuilding after Katrina: where's the ACCESS?
ADA, ADAAG, state building codes and other mandated standards can be (or have they already been?) batted away with an administrative backhand to unleash the carpetbagger constituency. Certainly they will be if the mainstream media continues to deem it unworthy of airtime and column inches.
Whether the story is covered or not there is business reality that cannot be ignored. Home design influences the expectations of hotel patrons. Universal Design, driven by consumer demand, continues to sweep through the home contrustion industry. A demographic bulge is becoming disabled and less-abled as the Boomer generation ages worldwide. Those who attempt inaccessible shortcuts in construction in either private homes or public facilities in tourism centers such as the area devastated by Katrna will pay dearly in lost market share, lost revenues, and inevitable, costly retrofitting to survive.
Inaccessibility, regardless of its appeal as politically expedient, is an unsustainable business practice.
Further Readiing
Architectural Literacy
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/18423/117512