The South Australian Government recently announced that they will meet their obligations under the National Construction Code.
This means that South Australians with mobility impairment will now have access to more homes that are accessible. All new homes built in South Australia will need to adhere to new mandatory accessibility standards, which include features such as a no-step entry into the home, a pathway from the street, minimum door width and walk-in showers.
The LHA Silver Standards which formed part of the National Construction Code in 2022 will improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in South Australia, including people with disability and those that are ageing.
The decision to adopt these standards is a huge win after many years of advocacy from disability and ageing groups, including our Building Better Homes campaign that we have been running for the past 2 years.
Recent research conducted by the Summer Foundation, as part of this advocacy work, found that 3 out of every 4 Australians with mobility impairments were not living in houses that meet their needs. That is millions of people who are forced to live in houses that restrict their lives, simply because not enough houses in Australia have accessibility features. The new standards will be progressively implemented in every state and territory, except NSW and WA, from October 2023.
