Developing a home assessment instrument for the disabled elderly.

Abstract

Senior citizens are a rapidly growing portion of our population. This large group of older people has increased the demand for commercial accessible housing such as nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Due to the inflexible design of older homes, the elderly have been forced to move to in such types of housing. The high price of nursing homes and the strong desire the elderly have to remain in their existing homes support the need for a more cost effective and accessible way to live. Therefore, it was the purpose of this research project to develop an assessment instrument to determine the degree of accessibility of an existing older home in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma which is representative of an older home typically inhabited by the elderly. An assessment instrument was developed to evaluate accessibility in the areas of mobility and visual disability. At the end of this thesis study one can use the results of this assessment instrument to create designs correcting problems relating to these inaccessible areas as they are identified by the instrument. Also included in the development of this instrument were considerations for elements that research has indicated increases the quality of life for the elderly. After using the newly designed assessment instrument on the home utilized for this case study, the noncompliant elements were identified and addressed. New design solutions were drawn in order to illustrate the method used to rectify the problem areas and elements identified as insufficient by the assessment instrument. An effort to create design solutions that were aesthetically pleasing that did not appear institutionalized was also a goal of this research project.