Home improvement techniques pioneered three decades ago provide a good retrofit for the homes of today's aging baby boomers.

That's good news.

Nearly a quarter of those aged 45 or older say they or someone they live with will have trouble getting around their home in the near future, according to "Fixing to Stay, 2000: A National Survey on Housing and Home Modification Issues," conducted this year by the American Association of Retired People.

Unfortunately, fewer than 10 percent of the nation's approximately 100 million housing units have features to make them universally accessible, the study says, but the older home owners get, the more they prefer to remain in their homes.

Two-thirds of the survey's respondents, aged 45 and older, believe their current residence is where they will always live. Just under half of the respondents 45 to 54 fell this way, while four out of five of those 65 and over plan to remain in their current home.

Homes without suitable access can limit the quality of life for older people and increase costs to society, experts say.

AARP randomly surveyed by telephone 2,000 people age 45 and over, to capture the opinions of the "baby boomer" age group. Respondents were asked about their current housing situation, housing preferences, difficulty getting around the house, concerns about being able to remain in their home, modifying their home, changes they have made or would like to make to their home, reasons for making those modifications, and reasons for not having made home modifications.

Thanks to the early 1970s work of Ronald L. Mace, an architect and wheelchair user, universal design concepts can meet the needs of both older people and people with disabilities.

Once considered a threat to the value and marketability of homes, home improvements with "universal design" features are taking on new appeal.

Former director of the Raleigh, NC-based Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University, Mace and others developed seven universal design principles to broaden a structure's accessibility, usability and safety for people of all ages and abilities. When applied to home improvements the principles simplify life for everyone with little if any lost value.

"These items have minimal impact on value due to the ability to remove them without substantial cost. Items that are more permanent in nature, home buyers see them as a safety features, rather than unsightly obstructions," said Greg Stephens, a San Jose, CA-based appraiser with a national real estate appraisal management firm.

Among a host of suggested modifications for a variety of disabling conditions, the universal design center offers these home improvement suggestions to compensate for certain disabilities and to make life easier at home for all.

Reduced range of motion

Published: May 11, 2000

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Broderick Perkins parlayed a career in old-school journalism into a contemporary digital news service that really hits home. The award-winning consumer journalist, originally from Wilmington, DE, is founder, publisher and executive editor of the bootstrap DeadlineNews Group, a Silicon Valley-based editorial content and consulting service specializing in residential real estate, consumer news and related editorial consulting services. The DeadlineNews Group includes the website, DeadlineNews.com, offering real estate editorial content and consulting services, and its back shop, the Deadline Newsroom, an open house on news that really hits home. Perkins obtained his formal journalism education from University of Delaware and a journalism boot camp, the Institute of Journalism Education at the University of California-Berkeley. He went on to 20 years of service as a daily newspaper journalist at the Wilmington, DE News Journal and San Jose, CA Mercury News. Perkins covered housing on the San Jose Mercury News reporting team which earned a General News Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 1989 for coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake. He has also produced real estate, consumer and small business content for the Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, RealtyTimes.com, Nolo.com, Better Homes and Gardens, the National Association of Realtors, Homestore/Move and Intuit/Quicken among more than three dozen publications. In addition to managing the DeadlineNews Group, Perkins most recently served as chief editorial consultant for Nolo's Essential Guide To Buying Your First Home, Nolo, and writes real estate television scripts for RealtyTimes.com.