Accessibility Improvements for Your Home

An aging population is looking for ways to stay in their homes rather than move to retirement apartments, assisted living, or their children’s houses. Retrofitting their existing homes with accessibility and usability features can help add to their quality of life and ultimate resale value.

Bath and Shower Improvements

Many slip and fall incidents occur in the bathroom. Older bathrooms have slippery tile floors, tubs that require awkward steps, and no seating in the tub or shower that an older person can easily get up and down from. Newer fixtures provide features like step-through doors on tubs, no-slip surfaces, and padded seating.

Help With the Stairs

Carrying parcels up and down stairs can strain and make falls more likely. A cargo lift avoids this risk by providing a lift for parcels. They can be installed unobtrusively either indoors or outside. They are much smaller than a commercial elevator and are not designed for carrying humans or animals.

If walking up stairs isn’t possible at all, chair lifts are also available which allow someone to sit down and ride up and down the stairs. If properly designed and installed, they do not require massive changes to the structure of the house, and can be taken out if no longer needed.

Ramps at Entryways

Traditional entryways that feature drops of a few inches have tripped up many people of all ages. They pose a great deal of difficulty to people in wheelchairs or who use walkers. If possible, redesign staircase entryways entirely with ramps in mind, rather than building a ramp awkwardly off to the side. Ramps are usable by everyone, and safer than stairways in many cases where the amount of lift is really not that significant.

With a few basic changes, an older person’s home can be usable for their entire life. These changes can promote usability and safety for everyone in the house.