![]() ![]() Further, having accessibility related home modifications can improve independence, safety, privacy and self-confidence for people with disabilities. Some research demonstrates that interventions to enhance the accessibility of homes (e.g., home modifications, creating space to accommodate mobility devices and implementing accessible designs) can have positive health and social impacts, such as reduced depression, mortality rates, and falls or injuries, in addition to enhanced social participation. For example, research consistently highlights that housing accessibility and affordability are important social determinants of health that are associated with improved health outcomes and quality of life. ![]() Indeed, home adaptations are a central part of the rehabilitation process for people with disabilities. Īccessible housing is critical to the wellbeing of people with disabilities because it can provide them with many health and social benefits for people with disabilities. ![]() Such a lack of inclusive, affordable and accessible housing perpetuates the marginalization and social exclusion of people with disabilities. The lack of accessible housing options can be exacerbated for some people with disabilities who need or prefer to live in close proximity to accessible public transit stations, employment opportunities and everyday services (e.g., health care services, grocery stores etc.). Many people with disabilities have specific accessible housing requirements, and at the same time have severely limited housing options. In Canada for example, people with disabilities are more likely to live in conditions of “core housing need” than the rest of the population, indicating that their housing does not meet a minimum standard of adequacy, suitability, or affordability. Consequently, many people with disabilities live in housing that does not meet their needs and those who do could face barriers in building relationships with those in their surrounding community (e.g., they may be unable to visit the inaccessible homes of neighbors, friends and family). For example, the Center for International Economics estimates that less than 10% of new housing stock has been built to accessible standards. In stating accessible housing throughout this paper, we are referring to housing that has been designed or modified to satisfy applicable accessibility requirements and to account for the needs and preferences of people with disabilities.Īlthough accessible housing policies exist, they often fail to cover the majority of the housing supply. Thus, the magnitude of accessible housing challenges is likely to escalate unless large scale efforts are made to improve the situation and to address issues in the physical housing environment. ![]() Approximately 22% of Canadians (some 6.2 million people) have a disability and this number is expected to increase rapidly with Canada’s aging population, heightening the demand for accessible housing. The United Nations Flagship Report on Disability and Sustainable Development Goals highlights that the housing situation of people with disabilities is a key area of challenge over the next decade. People with disabilities, who represent one of the world’s largest minoritized groups, often struggle to find and acquire accessible and affordable housing. The funders played no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: It is a review paper so all of the studies reported in our review are available.įunding: This review was funded by Social Science and Humanities Research Council, knowledge synthesis grant 872-2022-1009, awarded to Sally Lindsay. Received: JAccepted: AugPublished: January 25, 2024Ĭopyright: © 2024 Lindsay et al. PLoS ONE 19(1):Įditor: Lea Sacca, Florida Atlantic University Charles E Schmidt College of Medicine, UNITED STATES Citation: Lindsay S, Fuentes K, Ragunathan S, Li Y, Ross T (2024) Accessible independent housing for people with disabilities: A scoping review of promising practices, policies and interventions. ![]()
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