Spokane man wants to bring universal design to community's homes

From KXLY-TV:

SPOKANE, Wash. -- The Americans With Disabilities Act requires public buildings to have ramps, handicap parking, etc. But what about the millions of homes? One Spokane man is tackling that issue.

In the home setting it's different, people with disabilities buy homes and retrofit them for their needs. But now for the first time ever in Spokane, one local man is building homes that anyone can access.

Brian Beyer is proud of the house he built, it's a house that doesn't discriminate.

"The whole idea is to create a house that's barrier free, that's comfortable to live in," said Beyer.

From the front door with no steps, to the wider hallways and even in the kitchen, not one detail was overlooked.

"The ranges all have front controls on them so they can get access to anything without worrying about getting burned," Beyer said.

The Five Mile Prairie home even includes a hydraulic elevator to carry it's occupants to the upper floor.

For Brian, building the home has been a personal project.

Beyer's father became a paraplegic late in life and lived out his final years in a confined space, his home was filled with obstacles making it hard to navigate in a wheelchair.

"My Dad and I were very close and it really hurt me to see what he had to go through and how quickly that can happen to somebody," Beyer said.

Beyer learned how important it is to make the adjustments unrecognizable to the outside world.

"When you drive by a house along the street and you see a ramp on the outside, it screams the fact that there's someone in there with a disability," Beyer said. "Most people that have that type of disability prefer it to be a little bit more anonymous."

The whole concept of Beyer's universal design is brand new to Spokane. Realtor Ken Sax hopes it's a design that will take off.

"We don't have these homes readily available for folks that are disabled, they have to retrofit a home," Sax said. "Here's this concept that's been going on successfully and is now being pioneered in Spokane."

Beyer says he hopes he can continue to build houses just like the Five Mile home as a tribute to his father.

"I think he would have been terribly at home here, he would have been at home in this house," he said.