No mention of the ADA in the entire article - I guess people with mobility issues should go fly a kite.
The norm in europe is one staircase and one elevator. The elevator is the accessible bit.
In many areas, the regulation is that if there is an elevator, it must be big enough to hold a stretcher for EMTs. These are of course far more expensive than an elevator large enough to accommodate a wheel chair.
So given the choice between some accessibility and extreme accessibility which is too expensive to provide, the legal choice is to go with zero accessibility.
After a while it becomes clear that the point of most of these regulations is to make multi-unit housing inconvenient and expensive, under the veneer of regulations that, on their face, would improve outcomes.
I don't have figures, but my job, but for a multi unit house the extra space is probably not a problem. A typical one could be 10 floors, 4 units per floor. The extra expense for the builder of the house is divided by 40 and the extra space taken from each floor is divided by 4. The maintenance and electricity bills are higher though.
But all of this is unrelated to
> It does mean disabled residents are sort of screwed if there's a fire alarm and the elevators are shutoff--as a friend told me recently--unless the neighbors can help.
Anyone with anything more debilitating should steer clear.