Disabled people have the lowest incomes and worst housing circumstances of all social groups in society due to their needs (historically) being rarely considered within the general area of housing provision. Owner occupation is beyond the incomes of the majority of disabled people, while social housing is limited in both number and location and frequently inappropriate. Unsurprisingly, most disabled people live with another family member, often causing considerable pressure and burden to all involved. In a context where government ministers in the UK are stressing the importance of developing an inclusive society, disabled people's inability to gain access to housing, which meets their particular need, reinforces their partial citizenship.

Poor domestic design that has the potential to inhibit disabled people's access into, and movement and mobility around housing environments, compound this partiality. In 1991, the now defunct Department of Environment, conducted an English House Condition Survey (EHCS) which confirmed that 73 percent of the housing stock was inaccessible to disabled people. Indeed the (EHCS) deemed a dwelling accessible; if it had no more than two steps to the floor which provided kitchen, WC and bathroom facilities and at least two other rooms. Further research conducted during 1991-92 indicated that only 4 percent of housing association property, and 2 percent of private sector homes, provided main entrance accessible thresholds to permit ease of wheelchair access. Other studies concur in suggesting that, because of inappropriate design, disabled people are often dependent on others to get around their homes. The experiences of disabled children, notes that children often feel stranded in one part of the home because of physical impediments and have to rely on an adult to move around.

Over the years, successive governments have sought to redress problems of inadequately designed housing by recourse to a mixture of policies including the provision of home improvement grants to facilitate the adaptation of dwellings and the construction of purpose built wheelchair and mobility units. In contrast, design standards were less stringent in mobility housing. It is worth noting that, apart from the construction of a few private sector sheltered schemes, there was no record of housing being built to wheelchair or mobility standards in the private sector. Rather builders usually ignored non-statutory directives on designing for the needs of disabled people, and constructed dwellings to minimum space standards. The unwillingness of builders to raise, voluntarily, standards of design, led to Part M of the building regulations, relating to disabled peoples access to public buildings.