In Canada, they care about their people. They care about them so much that they don’t want them to use doorknobs. This is why.

Thanks to a bylaw passed in late September, all buildings that are built from March 2014  will not be allowed to have doorknobs. This is to make access to buildings easier for the disabled, the dextrously-challeneged and the thumbless.

Tim Stainton — professor and director of Social Work at the University of British Columbia — explains:

The old model was adapted design. You took a space and you adapted for use of the person with a disability. What universal design says, is let’s just build everything so it is as usable by the largest segments of the population as possible.

These are the same bylaws that have introduced swathes of new changes to building regulations. New buildings are now required to have lower light switches, wider hallways, and adaptable showers.

For now, all this only applies to new buildings, so there won’t be any doorknob police checking up on people.

But we’re not saying that wont happen in the future – it just might.

Brought to you by Ledula

[Source : The Verge]