Alex Cukan is an award-winning journalist. In a 10-part United Press International syndicated series published on Science Daily website in May, 2006, she looks at the problems we face as a nation in failing to include basic access in homes, and points out that the aging of the Baby Boom is beginning to force innovators to adopt universal design.
Here are a few excerpts from the Science Daily website series:

Universal design -- the design of products, services and environments to be usable by most people regardless of age, ability or situation -- is anything but universal.

Which is a shame, because the best shower of my life was in a Washington, D.C., hotel room in what was then a Ramada Renaissance -- it was big and roomy and I wasn't constantly hitting the wall or the shower door with my elbows. I did a lot of traveling for my job back then and I remember being very impressed with the larger-then-normal bathroom with the pocket door.

I loved the pocket door because hotel bathrooms had a way of being small, cramped, claustrophobic and without windows, but the pocket door made everything seem open and filled with natural light.

If there were grab bars by the shower I didn't notice them, but I did like the more-than-usual towel racks from which I could hang my suits while I was showering, to take out the wrinkles.

Only after researching the elements of universal design did I realize that I must have been assigned a room normally reserved for a person with a disability. At the time, I thought that the hotel had simply been making its rooms more amenable for the business traveler.

Yet universal design in homes is still mainly in the pilot phase, despite the growing number of baby boomers aging. . . . (Read rest of article.)

. . . the National Association of Home Builders says America's 50-plus population is estimated to hit 100 million by the year 2010. Builders, developers and other housing professionals recognize the importance of this market, according to the NAHB. With 10,000 people turning 50 every single day and 50-plus consumers accounting for more than one-quarter of all new-home sales, it's the fastest-growing segment of the housing industry, according to the NAHB. In a list of 26 trends for 2006 the NAHB includes: "Universal Design -- Our visiting parents aren't getting any younger (and neither are we). 'Visitability' in entry doors, barrier-free showers and non-stoop dishwashers show buyers you care." But baby boomers are taking care of parents now, parents are visiting their children's homes or living with them now -- so waiting a couple of decades is too late. (Read rest of story.)