In Stockholm, a study in the costs of disabling environment was conducted, and the following was uncovered. Installing an elevator in a three or four story apartment house is claimed to increase the break-even rent by approximately 50 to 70 SEK per sq m housing area a year, in the absence of any subsidies. Below, is a table depicting the results more comprehensively.

Table: additional costs incurred by absence of elevators. The estimates were based on the present and future population mix in multi-family tenant housing in Stockholm's senior suburbs, and on the assumption that elevators are installed in each building upon renovation - regardless of whether persons with disabilities live there or not.

Not included in the estimate is the value of ending discrimination through physical barriers which make many of the elderly and persons with disabilities unnecessarily dependent on the help of others, causing social isolation, physical hardship and accidents, deprive a part of the population of most housing choices, and force many into institutions. This value cannot be expressed in monetary terms - it is a human right regardless of whether it "pays" or not, Sholes (1979).

In the United States, studies using cost-benefit analysis as method to compare the magnitudes of the costs of a given investment to its expected benefits over time in order to assess the desirability of projects were conducted. Given the scarcity of resources, those projects would then be given priority where the ratio of expected benefits over costs is higher than in other projects reported similar benefits. For example, a cost-benefit study undertaken by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, estimated that adapting existing housing reduces the need for support services and yields benefits that amount to 13 to 22 times the levels of costs (Robinette, 1978). Elderly clients of national demonstration home repair and housing adaptation program felt that these services enable them to function far more independently (BE&C Engineers Inc., 1977).

A study by Silvia Sherwood (1981) indicated that 50 per cent of the 344 people applying to the Hebrew Rehabilitation Centre for the Aged in Boston in the early 1970's were capable of functioning in the community with appropriate supports and accessible housing. An evaluation of "Project Open House", a program that adapts homes of individuals with disabilities in New York City, found that adapted housing was a major predictor of the productivity of these individuals including the amount of time they spent out of bed, working in their homes and participating in community activities (Dunn, 1990).

Project Open House spent an average of only $1,500 in 1986 to adapt existing homes of consumers (Dunn, 1990). If houses are adapted prior to construction the costs are even less than retrofitting homes. If accessibility is incorporated into a design prior to construction, the cost of making 10 per cent of the units accessible is less than 1 per cent of the total constructions costs (Bartelle Memorial Institute, 1977). Most importantly, units can be constructed to be "adaptable" to the individual needs of residents. Doors and corridors can be made wider, counters made adjustable and bathrooms designed so that grab bars can be easily installed to respond to the needs of the consumer. Chollet (1979) estimated that adaptable units can be constructed for only slightly more than conventional ones. Adaptable housing can be constructed so that everyone can use this universal design. The design is blended in so that it is often difficult to see that counters or clothing rods in closets are adjustable for people with different heights.

Nömmik, E. (1986), a study on the economic incentive of elevators installation in Swedish residential buildings revealed that, from the standpoint of national economy, it is a good business to install elevators in older people’s houses. For example, if an elderly person can stay in his or her own apartment for one year, the public purse saves a sum approaching SEK 100,000. An elevator that costs SEK 400,000 to put in will pay for itself if it enables two elderly persons to remain in their own homes for another two or three years. For the landlords and private individuals, it may not always be economic as yet to install an elevator in older three-to-four-storey buildings-unless the cost of the elevator can be spread over a large number of flats. If the installation of elevators is going to get up speed, they must be financially feasible both for property managers and for residents.

Thus, the financing rules must be elucidated with least possible delay, so that vendors and purchasers can do their calculations on a firm basis. Uncertainty inhibits development he recounted. The market potential for the new elevators in Sweden can be put at about 50,000 units. This represents an increase of 1000-13000 elevators a year, almost a 50% increase on current elevator production. Scope for export business may open up in due course, he concluded.

Hall, E. (1989), analysis contained case of studies of three types of residential structures: high-rise apartment, garden apartment and single-family homes. In the analysis, only easily measurable economic costs and benefits accruing to persons with disabilities were considered. In estimating the benefits from the accessible renovation, the author employed a simple proxy. Benefits were taken to be market value of personal assistance that individuals were able to provide for themselves due to the absence of architectural barriers. An estimate of the value of personal care was obtained by subtracting the average rent in residential institutions with no personal services to tenant from average rent in residential institution, which provide such services.

However, the study received a lot of criticism from both academicians and the persons with disabilities themselves. For example, one criticism pointed out that the differences in cost between the two types of facilities seem a rather indirect indication of effect of accessibility. Hence, both types of institutions were usually housed in accessible structures. Thus, the differences in the level of services required cannot be due to architectural characteristics, it was rather a function of the physical and mental condition of the respective clienteles.

Bails (1986) reported that the cost benefits available to a community that provides the physical needs of the aged in planning and design, so that they can remain independent for five extra years is in the order of $500 millions per 1 million of the population on the 1986 figures. However, this doesn’t include the reduction in the cost of providing institutional care.