Housing and Universal Design

The National Disability Authority (NDA) has developed policy advice and is conducting research on universally designed homes.

Universally designed homes are designed and composed so that they can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people regardless of their age, size, ability or disability.

On this page

Policy Advice on Universally Designed Homes

We developed this paper under Action 97 of the National Disability Inclusion Strategy 2017-21. The paper sets out our advice on ways of achieving Universal Design solutions for new housing so that homes can be made accessible to all regardless of their age, size, ability or disability.

Cost of Universal Design Homes

We are working on two pieces of research that cover the very important area of costs of Universal Design homes. The projects complement each other.

The first project is setting out how much extra all the fixtures and fittings in a Universal Design home will cost, compared to the fixtures and fittings in a standard home.

The second project is putting together a Cost Benefit Analysis that will cover the financial and non-financial benefits of building a greater number of Universal Design homes.

The information gathered for these two projects will support our policy advice and recommendations to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. More information will be provided on these projects when completed on the Centre for Excellence in Universal Design website.