Great accessible design is just great design, full stop

The bathroom is where most falls happen and where the difference between a universally designed space and a standard one is most visible. A standard bathroom has a raised shower hob, a bath that requires climbing in and out, a toilet at a height that makes sitting down and standing up effortful, and a basin that assumes a standing adult with full arm reach.

A well-designed accessible bathroom has a level-entry shower floor - flush with the bathroom floor, no hob, no step - so the only thing separating the shower zone from the rest of the room is a low-profile drain. The toilet is at a height that reduces the physical effort of sitting and rising. The basin is at a height that works sitting or standing. Rails are positioned where you actually need support, not where they happen to fit on the wall.

The difference in how this looks is almost entirely in the execution. Matching tiles, quality tapware, a brushed finish on the drain and rail - these choices mean the room reads as considered rather than clinical. A visitor would not know the bathroom was modified for accessibility unless they were told.

Standard kitchen design assumes a person standing at a bench for sustained periods. The bench is at 900 mm, the storage is above and below, and the space between the bench and the island is tight. None of that is wrong for most users in their thirties, but it becomes limiting when standing for long periods is tiring, reaching overhead is difficult, or a wheelchair is part of daily life.

Universal kitchen design lowers at least one bench section to a working height that is comfortable sitting down. It creates open knee space under part of the bench so a wheelchair user can pull close. It moves the most-used items to between hip and shoulder height. Lever taps and loop-handled drawers replace knobs and round handles.

The goal is a kitchen that works the same way regardless of how you happen to be moving on any given day, and that means designing the room around how it will be used rather than bolting changes onto the one that is there.

The entry to a home carries an enormous amount of symbolic weight. A step at the front door that requires someone to ask for help - or to use a back entrance because the front one is not accessible - is a daily reminder of a limitation. Level-entry access means arriving at home the same way everyone else does.

Doorway widths of 820 mm or more allow a wheelchair or walking frame to pass without careful manoeuvring. This is the standard in new construction, but the majority of Perth's housing stock predates it, and homes built in the 1950s through 1970s routinely have doorways of 750 mm or less. Widening a doorway is not a large job; it is, however, a job that requires understanding what is in the wall and how the frame is constructed.

Lever door handles, door closers with delayed action, and consistent floor levels between rooms eliminate the small obstacles that accumulate into exhaustion for someone whose mobility is reduced. Individually, each of these changes is minor. Together they determine whether a home is easy to live in or not.

Floor level transitions between rooms - a lip at the bathroom doorway, a step from the living area to the back verandah, a difference in height between a 1970s extension and the original home - are among the most common fall risks in Perth homes. Most of them were never intended to be permanent features; they are just the result of building different parts of a home at different times.

Consistent flooring at a consistent level removes these risks. Where a transition cannot be eliminated entirely - a genuine change in floor level between areas - a gentle ramp or a bevelled threshold brings the change to something that can be crossed without lifting a foot. Anti-slip flooring in wet areas and on external steps reduces the risk in the areas where it is most acute.