NJIT Video Shows Supportive Home Environments For Children With Disabilities

NEWARK, April 3-A House For All Children, a newly-released 32-minute video from the Center for Architecture and Building Science Research (CABSR) at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), demonstrates how six New Jersey families successfully modified their homes for their children with disabilities. The video is the companion to a 112-page, soft-cover, same-named text, published last year.

The video illustrates how individual families modified their homes to meet the needs of the child within the constraints of household finances. The book provides a comprehensive overview of available home modification options. A grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, funded the video, the book and the distribution of several thousand copies of each one to disability organizations.

The featured New Jersey families reside in Englewood, Scotch Plains, Atlantic City, Mays Landing, Sweetwater and Jackson. (Note: Interviews are available through the NJIT Office of Public Relations.)

"A home that is safe and accessible allows a child with a disability to develop self-esteem, and at the same time makes care giving less stressful and parenting easier," says environmental psychologist Richard V. Olsen, Ph.D., one of the three authors and producers of the tape and book. Olsen, a Summit resident, directs the CABSR Division of Health Care and Aging Environments at NJIT's New Jersey School of Architecture.

Co-authors/producers include Ezra Ehrenkrantz, FAIA, a Dobbs Ferry resident and the executive director of CABSR, and B. Lynn Hutchings, a New Brunswick resident and a research architect at CABSR.

"This information can improve the lives of children with disabilities since it shows the effectiveness of home modifications and what works best for families at different income levels," says Olsen.

The book focuses on the changing needs of children as they develop and correcting typical trouble spots like door widths, locks, door-sills, faucets, kitchen devices, and inaccessible bathrooms. The research was based on interviews with 65 New Jersey families.

Both the video ($17.95) and book ($21.95) are available from Olsen, CABSR, NJIT, University Heights, 323 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Newark, NJ 07102
(973-596-3097). Sale proceeds will be applied to producing more videos and books. More information about the project is available at www.ahouseforallchildren.njit.edu.