Disability advocates want some basic features in all new Georgia homes ATLANTA, GA (WABE) - Eleanor Smith lives in Decatur's East Lake Commons. She had polio when she was 3-years old, and she moves around in a motorized wheelchair.

When she visits her neighbor's home, there are no steps but instead a small bump to get in the front door.

"All that is different about this house is that I was able to bump in the front door, without going up a step. And the door widths were made deliberately not so wide that they look strange, just a normal door width."

East Lake Commons has inclines rather than steps outside, and wide doors inside homes make them more accessible for those with walkers or wheelchairs. Smith says these features make it easy for her to visit friends.

"It's a house for everybody, it's not a house for diabled people. And in the process of becoming a house for everybody, it becomes a house that at least has the basics for the diability, and then you can add other features at a different point."

Basic feature like these, disability advocates say, cost maybe a couple hundred extra dollars when a home is being built, but a lot more when remodelling.

For example, builder and remodeler Christine Fortenberry says sometimes it's not so simple to just add a wider bathroom door.

"It becomes technically impossible to make the wider door without totally removing and reinstalling one of the bathroom walls."

Advocates are working with state lawmakers to introduce legislation that would require the inclusion of some basic accesible features in the construction of new homes.

Those would include one no-step entrance, wider doorways and a bedroom and a bathroom on the main floor.

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