This can mean anything from returning to a house where they will have to wash in the kitchen because the bathroom is inaccessible, to only being able to leave the property when friends or family are around to carry them out to the pavement outside. 

Nearly a quarter of disabled people who need adapted accommodation don't have it and there is a shortfall of around 300,000 wheelchair accessible homes in the country. In a recent survey, around 40% of disabled people felt their housing situation made them unnecessarily dependent on other people. Yet building new properties to accessible standards is simple and cost effective, and with some careful planning and the right expertise many properties can be adapted to meet the needs of a wheelchair user. Barriers created by a general refusal to build to improved standards and Local Authority red tape mean it’s never that simple, though.

Aspire regularly feeds our expertise to government on a range of issues that affect people with spinal cord injury. 

Our most recent response was to the Government's paper on the future of Social Housing.  Read the full document here.

Last year, Aspire responded to the Department for Communities and Local Government consultation on creating a Single Equality Scheme for 2010 to 2013 and regularly feed in our housing expertise to relevant bodies. Read Aspire's response here.