I can say with conviction, enthusiasm and confidence that the single best way 
to reduce housing costs, by a mile, is not to ditch the accessibility codes.  
Rather, it is to ditch the single family home, and build instead multi-family 
housing structures that work, and live in them together.*  And, if you put 
these structures in or near existing municipal centers, you reduce travel costs 
and land degradation as well.  Promise.
* Many cohousers are experts in living together, but perhaps less so in 
multi-family models.
> And where will society lean in the trade-off between accessibility and
> affordability as we slide towards a smaller middle class, a greater divide
> between haves and have-nots and a general reduction in standard of living?
> Who can say.