Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Required handicap access to 2nd floor/elevator

[Ellen Keyne Seebacher (elle]

I'd like to pile on with everyone else, because this is an issue I
feel passionate about too.

I joined Mosaic Commons in 2004.  At that point we hadn't found land
and only had the basics of a Common House program.  One of the many
ideas we were considering, down the road, was a Common House with a
partial second floor -- perhaps with library storage in a loft, like
one Common House I've seen elsewhere.  Someone mentioned that this
would be exclusionary to disabled people, but although our core values
specified that we wanted our private units visitable by people in
wheelchairs, some of us didn't worry too much about an additional
partial floor on the CH -- our adults were mostly healthy people in
our thirties through fifties, and even our elders were physically
fit enough for stairs.

Then ... my car and I had a close encounter with a tree.  After I got
out of the hospital, I had to move in with my in-laws, because my own
house was simply not accessible.  And during those four months in a
wheelchair (I now use a cane), my views on accessibility changed
*considerably*.

Mosaic wound up designing a one-story Common House.  When it turned
out we were able to put in a partial basement, the community decided
to move the exercise room, music room, and pantry downstairs, and --
at move-in (fall 2008) -- to go without a chair lift, because of
cost-cutting issues.  But the chair lift is quite high on our list of
post-move-in priorities, and I and others will continue to advocate
strongly for it, so that we can include people with disabilities in
all our community activities.

Please don't assume that you and yours will *always* be able-bodied.


        Ellen Seebacher