It’s time to change the bathroom to accommodate the graying of America.
Gray America has stamped the bathroom’s landscape. With baby boomers getting older faster than … well … faster than they’re getting younger, the design of time-tested bathrooms is shifting. Add to the formula a growing population of disabled people, and it’s easy to see why a standard 5 by 7 foot bathroom no longer fits the need of America.
The concept of universal design, born in the early 1990s, takes into account the needs of the disabled, but it’s the aging of our society most fueling the concept. Universal design recognizes special needs of people of varied ages, sexes and functional abilities, and arranges areas so that all people can use the facilities.