by Jacky Gerzema
Since then, Haber has become a vocal advocate of ensuring public access for the disabled.
After living in Florida and Arizona, Haber and her husband Mark, who opened Jessica's restaurant on Seaman Avenue, moved back to their hometown in Baldwin and then bought a house in Freeport. They worked hard to choose a home that met specific qualifications and measurements to meet Haber's physical needs.
"We bought a house about a year and a half ago," Haber said. "It was more difficult for us to find homes that were accessible for me. It made it more difficult because real estate agents don't realize what you have to do to modify a house."
Nassau County Legis. Joe Scannell (D-Baldwin) recently announced a new initiative to help make it easier for people with disabilities to buy or rent a home.
In a cooperative effort between Scannell, Newsday, the Long Island Board of Realtors and the Nassau County Office of the Physically Challenged, a list of criteria were developed for determining whether a house or apartment may be handicap accessible or adaptable.
Once the criteria have been assessed for each home, an "HA" character that stands for "handicap accessible or adaptable" will appear in real estate advertisements in Newsday and other publications at no additional cost to realtors. Handicap adaptable means that a home can be made handicap accessible relatively easily and cheaply.
"This legislation is so important because we haven't seen anything like it in New York state or around the country," Scannell said at a press conference last week. "This is the first time that we know of something like this being done."
The Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association assisted in the effort by developing pamphlets to educate realtors in assessing whether a home is handicap accessible or adaptable. The Long Island Board of Realtors will circulate the pamphlets to its 14,000 members in Nassau, Suffolk and Queens counties.
The EPVA's pamphlet provides a checklist of features in a home that would make it handicap accessible, including doorways of certain width, hardwood floors and cabinets and sinks in the bathroom and kitchen that have no bases.
An aging population makes the initiative even more important, say advocates.
"With our extensive coverage of the Census, the aging of the population makes a very strong point for the increasing need of handicap accessibility," said Dixie Scovel, director of public affairs for Newsday, who said the new symbol will be implemented in the paper's advertisments by the end of March.
While no penalty will be assessed if realtors don't use the "HA" symbol in their advertising, Scannell said he and others will work hard to ensure real estate agents are aware of the initiative and educated to follow the guidelines.
Don Dreyer, director of the Nassau County Office for the Physically Challenged, said that as a person with disabilities himself, it took him three years to find his first handicap accessible and adaptable home.
"We are all behind this legislation," Dreyer said. "There are 54 million Americans with disabilities and roughly 200,000 in Nassau County and the surrounding area....The need for accessible housing is growing. This is a tremendous step forward and it's very dramatic for me as a person with physical disabilities. I have already seen a very positive response by the public."
Baldwin realtor Nancy Scarola, who owns Nancy Scarola Real Estate, said that she is behind this legislation 100 percent.
"I am absolutely for this," she said. "I have been talking about this
issue at Town meetings. It's going to be so much easier for people looking for this kind of accessibility."
Jessica Haber agrees and said that while the new "HA" component will facilitate the search for those with physical disabilities, it will also be beneficial to realtors.
"I finally found the house I was looking for in terms of accessibility, we just had to build a ramp outside," she said. "I think this ["HA" component] is great, especially if realtors are being educated. That's the most important thing. The convenience of the homebuyer will come after the realtors are educated."
