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The origin of much of this difficulty is quite clear: once again it was the medical model and its application to residential facilities for the mentally retarded that established in the eyes of all the code authorities seemingly once and for all the mentally retarded as a sick and helpless person requiring the stifling protection of the most stringent code provisions.

This is a matter of extreme urgency and truly a nationwide problem. Not only are construction costs for mental retardation residential services unnecessarily increased, often by vast amounts, because of code requirements; beyond doubt more serious is the fact that many of these code requirements geared to the needs of hospital construction give the resulting buildings some distinct dehumanizing features.

There is no attempt here to play down the necessity for uniform building codes strictly enforced. What must be put into question are building code provisions which make rigid judgments about people or groups of people which are clearly unwarranted and prejudicial. What is to be put into question are building codes which are "rigged" to favor certain industries or certain construction methods and make practically impossible or in any case uneconomical the introduction of modern, equally appropriate materials and methods which are both cheaper and more serviceable. Nor is there any attempt here to denigrate the importance of fire protection. Anyone who has worked in a responsible position in the field of the aging or in children's institutions or around hospitals appreciates the importance of good regulatory fire protection and careful fire inspections. Not infrequently it is the fire marshal who by insistence on the definitive closing of buildings long condemned as fire traps will make decisions faint-hearted administrators lack the courage to make. The objections raised here pertain to rigid classificatory judgments written into the fire codes which, in their large-scale application, are discriminatory against certain individuals or groups of individuals and deprive them without cause of basic personal rights, such as the right to live in normal rather than dehumanized surroundings.

While the subject has been introduced previously, it is dealt with here in such length because it has been largely ignored by professional and citizen groups alike, mostly because of its complicated technical aspects. This is an unfortunate misunderstanding because the question is not what kind of walls built from what kind of materials will give what length of fire protection; the question is whether young adults who leave their group residence to travel by public transportation to an all-day workshop, or a group of adult males in an institution who leave their building every morning to be used throughout the day by the state as cheap labor (driving vehicles, operating machinery, working in storehouses), can be considered by any rhyme or reason as requiring the same kind of fire protection in their living quarters as that prescribed for buildings which house 80 or more semi-ambulant, sickly, physically incapacitated, severely retarded young children.

Harking back to material presented earlier in this chapter, it is of course necessary to point out in fairness that the housing and fire code officials have merely reacted to traditional popular notions about the mentally retarded, and have been influenced by the picture of dehumanization they witnessed in public institutions. The need for change is obvious, and the burden rests on those working in the field of mental retardation to present well-founded and well-documented information which can be used to bring about a more rational approach to this whole matter.

Obviously research and carefully controlled experimentation is called for to convey a new and more adequate picture of the range of functioning levels and performance potentials of retardates, and to demonstrate the appropriateness of various types of construction in terms of such information. Considering that in the judgment of the President's Committee on Mental Retardation and of state commissions throughout the country, a vast number of outdated and long-condemned institutional buildings across the country must be demolished and replaced within the next 10 years, and sooner rather than later, with totally different types of buildings; and considering further that the greatly accelerated pace in accumulation of new knowledge and skills puts into serious question the past practice of erecting institutions to last for generations, one aspect needs particular attention. This is the possibility of introducing prefabrication methods when it comes to the construction of smaller and more informal residence buildings. Denmark, France, Czechoslovakia, and the U.S.S.R. are far ahead of our country in the use of prefabrication, and the Danish Mental Retardation Service in particular has successfully employed it to meet certain new and large-scale demands. A most important factor is that prefabricated methods will greatly speed construction, and no one could doubt that speed is of the essence in replacing our disgraceful human storage houses with new facilities that will permit humane management to become a reality.