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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
NJIT is a public research university enrolling over 8,200 bachelor's, master's and doctoral students in 80 degree programs through its five colleges: Newark College of Engineering, New Jersey School of Architecture, College of Science and Liberal Arts, the School of Management and the Albert Dorman Honors College. Research initiatives include manufacturing, microelectronics, multimedia, transportation, computer science, solar astrophysics, environmental engineering and science, and architecture and building science. According to Yahoo! Internet Life magazine rankings, NJIT has been America's most wired public university for three consecutive years.
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