ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the public aspects of private single-family residential housing by considering the need for inclusive design and the idea of open and accessible neighbourhoods. It suggests that the current legal framework for thinking about the requirements for inclusive design is less than satisfactory. The current framework excludes and minimizes inclusive design requirements in single-family residential housing because it predicates regulation on the degree of "publicness" attributed to a structure. Universal design standards are generally quite pervasive and applied throughout an entire structure. The idea of considering the exterior surface and space of a structure as "public" is one found in architecture and in law. In a market where private home ownership represents a short time period in the life of a unit that will be in the public housing stock for years to come, it is unclear that private preferences should be given significant weight in the balancing of public policy respecting inclusive design for the mobility impaired.
