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Currently, most builders in NSW do not produce accessible housing for a simple reason. It costs (just slightly) more. People with Disability Australia insists adopting the accessible housing code would add only about 1% to the cost of building a home.

Retrofitting buildings later is obviously far more expensive but unfortunately, in a highly competitive environment, every cent counts. Developers are pressed to save every cent they can. This means the voluntary standard is failing with most new builds currently not built to accessible standards.

With more than 64,280 people now on waiting lists for disability friendly social housing, the current situation is simply adding further pressure to the crisis.

People are forced into homelessness or leaves them burdening hospitals or other institutions at a long-term cost to the state.

PwDA is urging the state to take what should be a simple and obvious decision and change building regulations. The organisation says that simply adopting policy measures that the government claims it wants to adopt anyway would ensure new homes meet minimum accessibility requirements, reducing the need for costly modifications.

Today’s issue has a simple theme: political power.

As our Big Story from People with Disability Australia shows, governments need to be urged to make decisions - even ones that seem so obvious.

And our lead brief (below) is about wheelchair user Melanie Hawkes showing how individual people will challenge politicians who ignore People with Disability.

Enjoy and have a great weekend,

Nic Stuart (editor)