Page 20 - Green Builder Magazine May-June 2019 Issue
P. 20
BEYOND THE WHEELCHAIR STANDARD
If you’re in the building business, you know what “ADA-compliant”
means. This long list of specications from the Americans with
Disability Act applies primarily to commercial properties, but it also
covers residential ones of four or more units.
Historically, the ADA has oered a good baseline for building any
housing designed for elders. The ADA and Assisted Living Technology
(ALT) overlap in many ways. Both seek to remove obstacles to
ordinary patterns of life. Both seek to enable frail people to feel
safer in their homes. Both seek to allow people to stay independent
longer. But the ADA is rooted in the Old Days, when people didn’t
live as long, and frankly, had no options for living at home—other
than to depend on regular caregiver visits.
Other than making spaces compatible with wheelchair restrictions,
the ADA does little to make the house actively helpful, the way ALT Super Suit
does.
In an ALT house, some smart devices act as prosthetics, augment- Will our 100-year-old parents one day run up the stairs to our third-
ing and sharpening faded senses. Other devices perform simple or floor apartment in their high-tech assistive suits? A company called
complex tasks, from operating televisions to opening and closing Seismic claims that its exosuit will be all but invisible and provide
toilet seats. Still, others monitor the vital signs of the occupants, and the necessary mechanics for the wearer to bend, lift and do all of
send alerts when they sense erratic or sudden shifts in usage. This the other things a healthy body does. The biggest challenge may be
non-invasive data gathering avoids the life-in-a-sh-bowl eect of getting our frail relatives in and out of the Spandex-tight material.
24-hour video surveillance.
18 GREEN BUILDER May/June 2019 www.greenbuildermedia.com
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