ILS methodology and scope.

The Inclusive Living Standard is not a checklist. It is a structured methodology grounded in the world’s leading technical references for the built environment, extended by a proprietary internal manual refined over more than a decade of field practice.

Three layers of technical foundation.

The methodology behind ILS is built in three layers. The first layer consists of internationally recognised technical references for the built environment, including the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) accessibility guidelines, the ISO 21542 standard on accessibility and usability of the built environment, and the ANSI A117.1 standard on accessible and usable buildings and facilities.

These references are well-known to architects, developers and regulators worldwide. ILS does not claim authorship over them, nor certification by them. They are the technical floor on which the standard begins to build.

The second layer is the proprietary ILI internal technical manual. The manual is developed in-house and refined across more than a decade of practice in residential and institutional environments. It extends the international references into areas they do not cover, including life-stage adaptability, design intelligence, and the operational requirements of long-term functional habitability.

The third layer is the institutional review process. Each project is assessed by independent ILS reviewers, against the criteria defined in the manual, under structured protocols that produce a transparent, repeatable evaluation.

What ILS covers.

The scope of ILS covers the residential and mixed-use built environment. It applies to single-family homes, multi-family residential developments, mixed-use developments with residential components, and the residential units within hospitality projects such as branded residences and tourism-residential hybrids.

Within that scope, ILS evaluates the project across several technical domains. Among them are:

• Spatial geometry and circulation, including doorway widths, corridor configurations, turning spaces and vertical circulation.
• Bathroom and wet-area design, including layout, fixture selection, support potential and slip-resistance considerations.
• Kitchen design, including counter heights, reach zones, and provision for adaptable workstations.
• Lighting, contrast and visual environment, including provisions for low-vision and cognitive comfort.
• Mechanical and electrical systems relevant to long-term adaptability, including ergonomic switching and outlet placement.
• Materials and finishes, evaluated for safety, maintenance and longevity.
• Common areas, amenities and external circulation for multi-family developments.

What ILS does not do.

The scope of ILS is deliberate, and there are several adjacent territories the standard explicitly does not address.

ILS is not a building code. It does not replace or override local construction codes, fire safety regulations, structural requirements, or zoning rules. Any project pursuing ILS must, separately, comply with all applicable legal requirements in its jurisdiction.

ILS is not a social or welfare program. It is not designed as an instrument of compliance with disability policy, social housing mandates or any equivalent regulatory framework. Where such frameworks exist and apply, they operate in parallel to ILS, not within it.

ILS does not certify medical environments, hospitals, clinics or specialised care facilities. Those environments have their own technical and regulatory frameworks. The parallel standard for public-use buildings, including hotels, restaurants and offices, is the Inclusive Public Standard (IPS).

The discipline of ILS is to do one thing precisely, not many things approximately.

The role of the internal manual.

The internal ILI technical manual is the methodological backbone of the institution. It is not published commercially. It is used by ILI advisors, reviewers and the institutions to which ILI grants reviewer status.

The manual organises the criteria, defines the protocols for assessment, and documents the field-validated decisions accumulated across more than a decade of practice. It is the reason ILS evaluations are repeatable across reviewers, jurisdictions and project typologies.

The choice not to publish the manual is deliberate. Public publication would dilute the technical depth and the institutional protocol behind the certification. ILS operates on the premise that the value of the seal is inseparable from the discipline of its application.

Three operational levels.

ILS is structured in three operational levels, corresponding to the depth of adaptation embedded in the project. The levels are not graded by difficulty or merit in any moral sense. They reflect the scope of foresight the developer has chosen to integrate into the project.

The structure allows projects of different scales and ambitions to engage with ILS, while preserving the integrity of the upper-level certifications for those who commit to the full methodology.

For technical detail on the levels, criteria and review process, the institution maintains a dedicated standard reference at inclusivelivingstandard.com.

Methodological references: ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act), ISO 21542, ANSI A117.1, and the ILI internal technical manual. ILS does not claim certification by or affiliation with the named references.