Specialist Disability Accomodation (SDA) Design Standards
For accommodation to be suitable for SDA participants, it must comply with certain standards and characteristics that meet participants’ needs and the nature of their disability.
The SDA design standards released on October 25th 2019 supersede the Livable Housing Design guidelines that the SDA has been based on until now. The release of the standards mean that from the 1st of July 2021, all applications to enrol a dwelling for SDA are required to include a certificate from an Accredited SDA Assessor. SDA assessors will as a part of the certification process, nominate the Design Category the dwelling satisfies based on the Design Standards.
The SDA design standards are based on the four categories of SDA design which are set out in the SDA Rules, namely:
- Improved Liveability
- Robust
- Fully Accessible
- High Physical Support
The SDA Design Standard requirements have been determined as a minimum to be reasonable and necessary for the SDA participants based on their needs.
Optimal Living Therapy have an Accredited SDA Assessor who is a qualified Occupational Therapist and Access Consultant.
Dwellings of all Design Categories must, as a minimum, contain no less than one of each of the following elements:
- A Kitchen,
- A Bathroom,
- A Living/Dining area,
- An Entrance/Exit; and
- At least one Bedroom per participant.
The Accredited SDA Assessor will nominate the Design Category the dwelling is to be enrolled in at the time of certification based on the SDA Design Standards.
