Towards general accessibility of the built environment for persons with limited mobility
Alain Armeni, Ministry of Housing, France
French experience with respect to the integration of disabled individuals
in the built environment has made progress in recent years. The requests
of disabled individuals have indeed developed to a considerable degree within
the last decade, which makes it necessary to take their problems into increasing
consideration.
The first step was taken in 1966 when a policy was adopted to adapt a percentage,
albeit a rather small one, of housing in certain housing construction projects
for use by disabled persons. The accessibility of outdoor space was not
given much attention at that time and affected only the area immediately
adjacent to housing.
The difficulties of this policy, and notably the impossibility of balancing
supply and demand, led the French Government in 1974 to adopt new measures
tending to generalize the accessibility of the buildings and the housing
units they contained. In reality, it was chiefly the outside accessibility
of all the buildings for multi-family housing that was generalized at that
time, because the measures concerning the interior of the dwellings were
not very satisfactory for wheelchair users (for example, the sole obligation
was to have inside doors with a width of 70 cm).
In 1975, the associations of disabled persons obtained an extension of this
policy by the passage of a law which provides:
"The architectural arrangements and fixtures of housing accommodations
and buildings open to the public, notably school facilities, university
and training buildings, must be planned in such a way as to make them accessible
to persons with disabilities".
(Law of Orientation in Favor of Disabled Persons, June 30, 1975)
Since 1978, in application of this law, all public buildings that are new
or substantially rebuilt, as well as all new roads and streets and those
undergoing major repairs are required to be made accessible. Moreover, work
will have to be gradually carried out to make the existing buildings and
previously constructed road system accessible. The scheduling of this work
will have to be made public by the individual owners and local governments
responsible.
The technical measures that have been adopted are intended to permit a large
degree of autonomy to individuals with limited mobility, particularly those
who use wheelchairs without aid. In new installations, facilities that are
provided at the time of construction cost very little. A certain margin
of toleration has be allowed in old installations, and projects must be
examined with regard to technical possibilities within the limit of reasonable
costs.
It is a matter that will take a long time. A service in the Ministry of
Urban Development and Housing is devoted to taking accessibility into consideration
in urban development as a factor for the improvement of the quality of the
built environment for everyone.
In 1980 improvements were made in the measures covering accessibility in
housing. There again, the measures were aimed at giving people with limited
mobility the greatest possible autonomy and, as in the case of public buildings,
contribute to an improvement in the quality of housing for everyone. That
is why it seemed advisable to generalize them. The regulations now in force
include measures applying to the actual access to all new apartment buildings,
minimum requirements for all the housing units they contain, and more extensive
requirements applying to all housing units accessible to people using wheelchairs.
The first of these are fairly standard. They involve the provision of access
by ramp or, preferably, level entrances; corridors and doors of sufficient
width outside and inside the buildings as well as inside all the dwelling
units. An elevator is obligatory when there are 4 or more floors above the
ground floor and, if there is no elevator, the stairways must be sufficiently
easy to use for elderly persons and those who walk with canes, for example,
and they must be accessible to people being carried in a chair.
According to law, all housing units located on the ground floor as well
as those on an upper floor to which an elevator gives access must be accessible
to persons with disabilities. All such housing units must have a living
area that is easy for a person using a wheelchair to use (kitchen, living
room, at least one bedroom, toilet and bath). However, this facility may
be anticipated without actually being furnished at the time of construction.
In this case, the architect will have to prove that the transformation necessary
to permit a person using a wheelchair to use this unit can easily be made
by work that touches neither the structure nor the exterior of the dwelling
unit and does not alter its form, especially by decreasing the number of
rooms.
This rule, called "housing adaptability", seeks to leave the architect
a certain degree of freedom of design. It is obviously desirable that the
modifications which people in wheelchairs are forced to make should be reduced
as much as possible. If the housing accommodations built in France at the
present time do not regress, most architects will provide living facilities
that correspond to the needs of individuals using wheelchairs at the time
of construction, because these facilities are of the same nature as those
now being widely sought (a somewhat larger kitchen, a bedroom of at least
equal dimensions, etc.). The average additional cost required for adaptable
housing is relatively small ranging from 0.5 to 1 per cent.
In the sector of private homes and old housing units there is no legal obligation
to make them accessible at the present time. Recommendations have been made,
accompanied by a certain number of financial aids to serve as encouragement.
Thus from the housing unit to the street and to public buildings, the entire
environment can be made accessible. A considerable backlog has accumulated
but it is hoped that building accessibly will eventually become routine
rather than forced by law.
Technical measures are shown in the appendices which are available from the author.
