By 
Mobility problem can occur to anyone and it doesn’t have to be associated with the physically handicapped or a senior. If there is no one who is disabled in your family, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t consider making your home disabled friendly. You could have an injury or undergo a surgery for example, hip replacement surgery that compels you to seek mobility aids and adjust your home to cater for your mobility issues. So what changes can you make in your home to make it more disabled-friendly?
Driveway and Walkways
Movement into and around your home needs to be made easy for disabled persons or those with mobility challenges. These people use mobility aids like wheelchairs, crutches, canes, walkers. You need to adjust the driveway and garage space so that it makes it easy to get in or pull out of a car. From the garage to the front door, there needs to be a clear, wide, and properly sealed flat path to ensure that a person with a disability moves comfortably to and from the house. There should be no steep inclines, stairs, and curbs in the path.
The Kitchen Space
The kitchen area is one that is often visited and used, so working around the space needs to be easy. You can have the cupboard and drawers properly designed to allow ease of use. For example, round handles should be avoided. The space underneath the sink should be empty to allow wheelchairs to pull in close. The bench tops can have lowered sections to ensure wheelchair users have a comfortable surface for preparing food. You can have an oven that opens sideways instead of downwards to allow a person to get close without leaning over a hot door. The best thing is such arrangement in the kitchen makes Handicap Accessible Homes and pretty easily accesiable for everyone.
Living Space and Bedroom
The carpet you love stepping on becomes a problem when you are using something like a wheelchair. The wheels cannot roll easily, so you want to choose timber or tiled flooring. Make sure that you don’t have a high-gloss tile floor because it can increase the risk of slippage for people with canes and crutches. When having built-in furniture, ensure that it allows ease of manoeuvrability. You can move loose furniture towards the walls and get rid of coffee tables so that there is plenty of space for the disabled person or those with a mobility problem. The bedroom may be equipped with a medical bed to ensure that the individual pulls on to and out of the bed easily.
Bathroom and Toilet
People with disability use amenities in a different way. They can take more time in the toilet and bathroom. You could have an extra bathroom and separate the toilet from the bathroom area so that you have a person use the toilet while another is showering. A non-slip floor helps prevent accidents from occurring when accessing these amenities. The taps and fittings in the bathroom should be designed to be within the arm’s reach. Grab rails and bars are necessary to allow stability when moving around the bathroom and when using the toilet. Other options include having walk-in tubs and toilet seat raisers.
When you create a home environment that is friendly to people with disability, injured persons, or those who have abdominal surgery, you really help the individuals to live comfortably and safety during those difficult times. It also helps you prevent unexpected modifications, which can cost you unnecessarily at a time when you are dealing with a health problem leading to the mobility issue.
Comments