Building Accessibility Guide

TOM Melbourne collaborated with the Monash University Service Design Studio, a unique interdisciplinary course that brings together Industrial Design and Master of Architecture students. This studio focused on applying design thinking and processes to improve systems and services, working closely with MediStays — a provider that connects people with disabilities and hospital patients to accessible accommodation tailored to their needs.

The challenge arose from recent legislative changes to NDIS-funded short-term accommodation (respite) stays. Under the new rules, family members could no longer stay alongside individuals accessing these services, meaning many were facing independent stays for the first time. The students’ brief was to reimagine and improve the experience around booking, checking in, and staying, specifically for people with disabilities using the MediStays service.

In response to learning from MediStays about how difficult it is to find appropriate accessible accommodation, the students developed a building accessibility guideline. This guideline is an easy to read summary of building accessibility features that go beyond the minimum standard. This can be used during the building design phase, or to facilitate building upgrades. These liveable guidelines emphasise wider clearances, enhanced acoustic treatments and active technology to ensure visitors a more ‘comfy’ stay, beyond the base Australian standard (AS 1428.1). Please use this as a guideline, but also refer to most recent publications of building standards for your area.