What is "visitability"

n. A measure of the extent to which a building (or other site) is accessible to the disabled

Visitability is the design approach for new homes whose main principle is that a non-resident using a wheelchair should be able to visit the home. A social visit requires the ability to get into the house, the ability to pass through interior doorways of the house, and the ability to get into a bathroom to use the toilet.

Newly constructed homes often contain the same major barriers as older, existing homes: steps at every entrance and narrow interior doors, with the bathroom door usually the narrowest door in the house. Supporters want to change new home construction practices so that virtually all new homes, whether or not designated for residents who currently have mobility impairments, offer three specific accessibility features that will make it possible for most people to visit:

1. at least one zero-step entrance on an accessible route leading from a driveway or public sidewalk,
2. all interior doors being wide enough to allow a wheelchair to pass through (approximately ), and
3. at least a half bathroom on the main floor.

These features are designed around the needs of a person using a wheelchair while visiting, but they are also helpful to people with other kinds of mobility impairments, for example, if a resident breaks a leg. Living permanently in the home with a significant mobility impairment requires two additional basic features on the main floor: a full bathroom and a bedroom (or a space that could be converted to a bedroom).

Visitability is similar to Universal Design in general intention, but is more focused in scope, more specific in parameters, and more explicitly grounded in a social reform intent.

Visitability features make homes easier for people who develop a mobility impairment to visit friends and extended family rather than having to turn down invitations, or not be invited at all. These features also provide a basic shell of access to permit formerly non-disabled people to remain in their homes if they develop a disability, rather than forcing them to do expensive renovations, relocate to a different house, live in an inaccessible home which endangers their health and safety, or move from the community into a nursing home.