"An environment that everyone can use."

Nation's Business, May, 1989 by Donald C. Bacon

"An Environment That Everyone Can Use"

Businesses that invest in barrier-free design can expect returns far beyond increased patronage from the handicapped, reports an organization that helps people with disabilities lead more self-sufficient lives.

June Isaacson Kailes, executive director of the Westside Center for Independent Living Inc., Los Angeles, says, "Paying attention to barrier-free design can increase your market share, your sales, and customer convenience while it decreases your tax liability and insurance claims."

Such design, she adds, includes parking spaces that are designated for the handicapped, curb ramps, wide entries without steps, railings where there are steps, easily reachable elevator buttons, bathrooms designed with wide stalls and with grab bars, adequate lighting, and a well-planned acoustic environment.

Barriers, Kailes says, are problems for anyone whose mobility is limited by factors such as size, age, pregnancy, vision, hearing, broken bones, sprains, arthritis, bad knees, or a bad back.

In addition, she points out, barriers are problems for those--regardless of their health--who ride bicycles, carry heavy packages, push baby carriages, or pull shopping carts.

"The reality is that brrier-fre accessible environment accommodates and benefits eveyone by taking into account the full array of human conditions," Kailes says. "It is designing an environment that everyone can use."