The purpose of this Voluntary Standard is to provide a greater level of livable design than the minimum set out in the NCC and the ABCB Standard for Livable Housing Design. This is achieved through additional and enhanced provisions as compared to the ABCB Standard for Livable Housing Design.

This Voluntary Standard is not intended for use in designing specialist accommodation, nor is it intended to achieve equivalence with Australian Standard (AS) 1428.1. Therefore, it may not accommodate the abilities of all home occupants. Nonetheless, the enhanced and additional features described herein would benefit most home occupants.

This Voluntary Standard is a guidance publication. It is not mandatory to use this Voluntary Standard for compliance with any part of the NCC. However, if a user chooses to comply with this Voluntary Standard instead of the ABCB Standard for Livable Housing Design, they can still achieve compliance with the NCC as a Deemed-to-Satisfy (DTS) Solution. This is because the recommendations in this Voluntary Standard exceed the minimum DTS Provisions of the ABCB Standard for Livable Housing Design.

This Voluntary Standard is intended to apply to Class 1a buildings (houses and the like) and Class 2 sole-occupancy units (apartments), as defined in the NCC.