adira.de - The portal for housing without barriers
adira.de is the first German nationwide barrier-free housing portal for exclusively barrier-free and wheelchair accessible apartments.
National
Germany
Lower Saxony
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
2021-06-22
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverband Niedersachsen Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Jana Last name of representative: Tempelmeyer Gender: Female Nationality: Germany Function: project assistant Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Kühnsstr. 18 Town: Hannover Postal code: 30559 Country: Germany Direct Tel:+49 511 5104281 E-mail:jana.tempelmeyer@blindenverband.org Website:https://adira.de/
adira.de is the first German nationwide barrier-free housing portal for exclusively barrier-free and wheelchair accessible apartments. It was initiated by the Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverband Niedersachsen e. V. and is sponsored by the Aktion Mensch-Stiftung. The website www.adira.de was launched on June 22nd 2021. You can find barrier-free and wheelchair accessible apartments on the website. The headquarter of adira.de is in Hannover, Lower Saxony, Germany. The idea for a website for barrier-free and wheelchair accessible apartments has arisen within the Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverbandes Niedersachsen e. V. in collabaration with representatives from different associatons for the disabled, the housing industry and the Niedersächsische Ministerium für Umwelt, Energie, Bauen und Klimaschutz. It has started due to an updated building regulation in 2019 (Niedersächsischen Bauordnung; NBauO) in Lower Saxony, Germany, which claims that in case of any new construction from five apartments on, all these apartments have to be barrier-free according to DIN 18040-2. Every eighth apartment has to be wheelchair accessible. It was stated within the work group that disabled people have problems finding barrier-free housing, at the same time representatives from the housing industry acknowledged that it was difficult to mediate those apartments. As a main reason for this situation the lack of a suitable offering platform was identified.
The goal of adira.de is to provide barrier-free and wheelchair accessible housing for exactly those people who need it. The portal is an online marketplace where landlords of barrier-free and wheelchair accessible apartments meet seekers. The platform contributes to inclusion while making the criteria for barrier-free and wheelchair accesssible housing more popular and in the future also more accessible. Different partner from society, economy and politics promote adira.de and we are supported by an advisory board.
inclusion
barrier-free housing
wheelchair accessible housing
rental platform
self-determination
It is well-known that the real estate market is problematic in various ways, for instance in lacking availibility, poor condition and not contemporary state of housing in terms of accessibilty, also in high prices and a lack of housing at all. There is a high need for new housing and refurbishment of older apartments which are not up to date at all. We are trying to meet the needs of people who depend on barrier- free or wheelchair accessible housing. While gaining more public attention, we hope to create a new awareness for the necessity of barrier-free and wheelchair accessible housing. This should lead to an increasement of new building with the new standard, which is preferable and for every person. So it is future-oriented and good for the environment to build living spaces which are positive and useful for most of the people. Our project is also to be seen sustainable due to the overaging of society. Our project aims to connect seekers and providers. While we have integrated both parties in the planning process, we are aiming to observe side-effects as getting further connected and as a result, exchanging ideas and plans about needs and requirements for barrier-free housing. This kind of exchange enables a greater focus on the necessities of living and therefore less vacancy, less modifications and rebuildings. To sum up, the goal ist to build more precisely and demand oriented. This has a great environmental impact. A positive sideeffect is that this will also lead to less unnecessary flat tours.
Looking at further environmental sustainabilty, we do not store or save any data, which helps to save energy due to little data storage place. Furthermore, our work does not require explicitly office buildings and is practically to be done completely remote.
It was our main aim to build a barrier-free website which is for most of the people accessible und usable. We are convinced that this must be the new standard of an inclusive society. A barrier-free website enlarges the usabilty and satisfaction of users highly. On our website we do not use pop-up windows, it is screenreader -compatible and we offer alternative text. High contrasts are helpful for reading. Our website has a very simple design, it is well and clean structured and has no animations which would be disturbing. Our main colours are orange and blue, clear and strong, and also positive. We tried to use simple language to make the information on the website understandable for basically everyone.
For our next campaign,we had a photoshooting with professional wheelchair- basketballplayers from the club Hannover United. We think that it is a positive message showing people who are sympathetic and who also function as role-models, in their living environment. On our website we have a picture of a new built apartment house which should demonstrate, that barrier-free housing is not to be equated with social housing, but that the market is open for everyone and that there are and will be even more in the future, different options to choose from. We want to implicate that self-determination has to take place in one of the most essential parts of life: living as in housing.
First of all, our website and the whole range of services is completely free of costs. As a result, everyone can afford using our portal. While becoming more well-known, we hope that we show more various offerings, which means that there are more differentiated options for seeking people. In terms of inclusion we think that it is very important that there is a wide range of different kind of housing to choose from, e.g. new or old buildings, different sizes, locations and of course different price ranges. Our service and platform can be valued as exemplary because we want to show that the market is free and open for everyone.
The planning process for our project took place in collaboration with associations for the disabled. Furthermore, we have designed a barrier-free website so that the accessibilty is possible for everyone. That is also impossible because we wanted to make sure that seekers have no obstacle at all on our website in finding adequate housing. That is why our customer support can be reached via telephone or via text, e.g. e-mail, to make sure everyone has the option to contact us. Within the following year we are planning to integrate a wheelmap on our website. This online map indicates places which are wheelchair accessible. That should be a great improvement, when finding a new housing space to make sure that the surrounding environment ist also accessible.
First of all, basically everyone could benefit from our services as barrier-free and wheelchair accessible housing is advantegous for everyone. Especially considering an overaging society, the benefits of more adequate and suitable housing space is obvious. But of course, also for families with kids, thinking of space to store larger items like stroller, bikes and so on. Additionally, living together and visiting different kinds of people becomes also easier. In the planning phase, we have conducted surveys to find out about the needs of people with disabilities. We also wanted to make sure that our project is also supported by representatives of disability organizations. Civil society is represented by different members in our advisory board. While communicating that barrier-free constructing is not so hard to realize, we create awareness which should lead to change.
We offer a customer support via telephone or e-mail. That means that customers and citizens who are interested or have questions and ideas can contact us any time. We also have a feedback button on our website where visitors can leave a message and give input about new ideas and improvements.
Different partners from society, economy and politics promote adira.de. Besides financial support from the nationwide Aktion Mensch-Stiftung, adira.de is locally promoted by dem Niedersächsischen Ministerium für Umwelt, Energie, Bauen und Klimaschutz, dem Büro der Landesbeauftragten für Menschen mit Behinderungen, dem vdw Verband der Wohnungs- und Immobilienwirtschaft in Niedersachsen und Bremen, der meravis Immobiliengruppe, dem Paritätische Wohlfahrtsverband Niedersachsen e. V., dem Sozialverband Deutschland SoVD, Landesverband Niedersachsen, dem Bundesverband Selbsthilfe Körperbehinderter e. V., der Landesvertretung Niedersachsen und der Diakovere gGmbH. Adira.de is supported by an advisory board (members: der Niedersächsische Minister für Wirtschaft, Bauen, Verkehr und Digitalisierung Olaf Lies, die Landesbeauftragte für Menschen mit Behinderungen in Niedersachsen, Petra Wontorra, the managing director des SoVD-Landesverbandes Niedersachsen, Dirk Swinke, director of the Verbands der Wohnungs- und Immobilienwirtschaft in Niedersachsen und Bremen, Dr. Susanne Schmitt and the direcotr der meravis Immobiliengruppe, Matthias and Hans-Werner Lange initiator and chairman of the Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverband Niedersachsen). All those partners have offices and organization on a national level and will connect us with them in a later phase of the project.
Besides the financial support, the Aktion Mensch-Stiftung is engaged in accompanying and consulting our project. This is fundamental for us in terms of analysing our impact and also to keep track of costs and expenses. The real estate industry has advertised our project and mentioned it in newsletters and their specific media. We have create a network with partner from disabilty assocations and real estate representatives. This is an ongoing and growing factor in our project and will become even more important for us when we will focus more on public relations and social media, e.g. on LinkedIn, in the future.
The implementaton of our project was based on a planning phase which took around two years. It has started with a work group in which they worked out the amendment of the Niedersächsische Bauordnung which demands the construction of barrier-free housing. The work group consisted of representatives from the real estate industry, associations for the disabled and architects. Specialist knowledge was gained from a constructional, architectural field in analysing governmental specifications on barrier-free buildings. Also, the former project manager was an architect. We gained knowledge through the DIN 18040-2 Barrierefreies Bauen - Planungsgrundlagen - Teil 2: Wohnungen Ausgabe: 2011-09 for determining the requirements on barrier-free building and construction. This was necessary to break the knowledge down to thirty criteria.
The whole process of implementing and planning the project and website was accompanied by a marketing agency (planning a campaign, working out a communication strategy etc.). An evaluation agency started a survey and measured the website usage. An IT developing agency built our website and is involved in modifications and changes. While gathering knowledge from different fields, we were capable of implemeting a professional product, while interacting at each state in different constellations. Interactions crossed and took place personally, via teams meetings and calls. The marketing agency has also connected us to stakeholders from the real estate economy, whereas our base, the Blinden -und Sehbehindertenverband Niedersachsen, connected us with important partners from social associations.
We have planned, started, and modified various actions in our project. For instance, developing and starting the portal: Our output was a test version of the website, which was tested by the real estate industry. Their feedback was integrated in the final programming. Updates have followed which can be valued as outcome. The real estate industry created advertisements and uploaded them. The outcome was that the users gave positive feedback. They also demanded an interface which was then developed and installed. We have planned a communication strategy and the output was to create press releases, getting connected with stakeholders and the media. The outcome was the insight that the communication strategy needs to be put on hold until the interface is programmed and installed. This was necessary because one premise is that it has to be as simple as on other platforms to create an advertisement on adira.de. We offered a testing phase for the interface. The response was positive. However, the feedback from representatives from various real estate agencies and partners was that it is still too time- consuming to install an advertisemt on our website. We have decided to reorganize and restructure our website, because it is most important that we can offer various and a large amount of barrier-free or wheelchair accessible apartments. As a conclusion, within the next months, the website, especially the entry mask will be customized so that the thirty questions about the exact measurements and equipment etc. will be voluntary. This decision is also based on the fact that especially in older buildings not every dimension is available and having to check all boxes makes it in many cases impossible to create an advertisement. The relaunch of the website is set for April1st 2023. We expect an increasement of advertisement, more traffic on our website and as a result that seekers find adequate living space through our work with the impact of improving their living conditions.
Our platform is the first German nationwide barrier-free housing portal for exclusively barrier-free and wheelchair accessible apartments. There is no other comparable website, only regular housing portals which offer all kinds of apartments and houses for renting and purchasing. To sum up, our website is the only one which offers exclusively barrier-free and wheelchair accessible apartments. In addition, we have noticed that some housing portals give the opportunity while creating or uploading a new advertisement, to click a checkbox called for instance barrier-free or wheelchair-accessible. But there is no further quality control. So as a result, there are, on the first sight, barrier-free or wheelchair-accessible apartments in between all other kinds of housing offerings displayed, but if you have a closer look, most of those advertisemtents do not fullfill the demand on barrier-free or wheelchair accessible housing.
On our website, there is the opportunity to check whether the offered apartment is definitely barrier-free or wheelchair accessible. We have identified thirty criteria following the DIN 18040-2, a German regulation for barrier-free or wheelchair accessible housing. It is obvious that on our website are only to find barrier-free or wheelchair accessible apartments, which makes it easier for people who are searching those apartments. Innovative and future-oriented is also the fact that our website is barrier-free.
As managing a project in a non-profit sector, impact orientation is key as there is the goal to change as much as possible for the target group in terms of positive changes and furthermore to make changes in society. Our approach is based on the "Kursbuch Wirkung. Das Praxishandbuch für alle, die Gutes noch besser tun wollen.“ von Bettina Kurz und Doreen Kubek. In this manual it is shown that impact can be analyzed and evaluated in a model like a staircase. While not focusing on numbers and figures, impact is evaluated in different steps. The first steps are on a level called the output scale, which includes the kick-off of a project or activity, while reaching out to the target group and as a result, determining an acceptance for the offerings. The next level is the outcome, which is already to be valued as impact. This includes changing of awareness and consciousness, later in a change of actions. The last and highest level is the stage of the real impact: a change in society.
Outputs are an important requirement to achieve impacts. A very important part is the analysis of impact, e.g. through monitoring and evaluation. While drawing conclusions, improvements and changes can be implemented which leads to an improvement in impact - a new cycle begins. Our evaluation takes places in measuring our traffic on our website, we have conducted surveys to find out about the interests and requirement for our housing portal and we write reports to the foundation to give insight in our work. Recent analysis lead to the insight and necessity of an extensive change. The phase has started in September 2022 and will result in an adjustment of our portal (see: adira_PPT_aenderungsvorhaben_kriterien-281122.pdf). This is necessay to meet our aims and goals, for instance in achieving impact in terms of improving the life of people who need support the most and in contributing in changing society in a positive way.
We find it very important that our service and the project itself is not lead by economic interests, but with the objective of improving the social participation of everyone in connection with the UN disability rights convention. Our service may be replicated in any other country as there is everywhere around the world a need for barrier-free and wheelchair accessible housing and moreover, focusing on raising awareness for the topic while contributing to making the world more inclusive.
The technology of a barrier-free website can easily and also should be replicated to any other contexts. We are convinced that this should be the new standard, making websites more accessible for everyone.
The approach of integrating the different target groups in planning and creating a product or project is a future-oriented way of achieving satisfying results. Our platform and service of mediating barrier-free and wheelchair accessible housing can easily be replicated to other contexts, such as traveling offers. It is also part of our work, to make technical data more accessible and understandable for everyone. We have summarized the DIN 18040-2, a German regulation for barrier-free or wheelchair accessible housing and we have written it down in a more easily language. So as a result, even complicated technical issues can be made accessible for everyone. This is for sure necessary and also replicable in other areas.
The situation that there is not enough proper and adequate housing in the area of barrier-free or wheelchair accessibilty is not only a problem in Hannover, Germany, but allover Germany and moreover, allover the world. We need a global change here. Not only in offering more suitable living spaces, but also in making aware of and pointing out the need for a change in society here. In gaining a greater awareness for this important topic, there is the benefit to be expected that the construction sector of the future is getting more barrier-free and wheelchair accessible. Housing and living is an essential part of inclusion. That is why prizes like the New European Bauhaus Prizes and public fundings are so important in facing the global challenging of unjust and unequal access, chances and opportunities.
