Eleanor Smith (M.A., M. Ed.) is the Director of Concrete Change, an Atlanta-based national organization founded in 1987 to work for basic disability access to become standard practice in new homes. For this concept, she popularized the terms “Visitability” and “Inclusive Home Design.” During the past two decades, she has helped many advocates across the country organize to promote home access policies. These policies have resulted to date in more than 40,000 visitable homes built deliberately with access even though not designated for residents who currently have disabilities, and constructed in a wide variety of locations, climates and topographies.

She has produced several widely-used educational tools on Visitable construction and has co-authored articles published by Urban Land magazine, the Journal of the American Planning Association, and the AARP Public Policy Institute. In 1999, she received a Best Practices award from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and in 2004 the Housing Champion award from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

At DATHA, Eleanor Smith will give a short presentation about the basics of visitability, the associated health implications, and approaches to policy change with examples of how these have played out in Georgia and nationally. Her presentation will be followed by group discussions and a hands-on session focusing on addressing and overcoming the barriers of visitability at Georgia.

For more information about Eleanor, please read the following article by Daniel Rubin: http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/daniel_rubin/20101025_Daniel_R...