When you are disabled or have a disabled person living in your house you need to ask three questions with regards to how accessible your house is;
Can you or any disabled person get into and out of the house easily?
Can you or any disabled person get through the doors in your house easily?
Can you or any disabled person get easily into and move around easily in your bathroom?
If you have answered no to any of these then it is clear your house is not ideal for disabled persons. If you are disabled and living in this home you may want to consider either moving to a house more suited or remodelling the house you live in at the moment. To decide which option would be best out of remodelling or relocating you will have to think about what state the house is in at the moment and how much work will need doing to get the house up to an acceptable level also how much it would cost you and if you have enough funds. Some things you will have to look for when buying a new property or adjusting parts of your existing home are;
- If you are building a ramp to lead up to your home or looking at a property that has a ramp you will need to make sure it is to the right gradient this being a raise of 1” for every 12” in length. You could build a permanent ramp from concrete or alternatively build a temporary ramp from wood until you can have a permanent one built, you could also use this kind of ramp in a house that you were moving from soon.
- You could re-grade the land leading to the front door so there are no steps or raised ground leading to the front door. There are plenty of houses around with this kind of entrance and it’s fairly simple to change an entrance to this kind of entrance.
- You then need to look at the doorways as a change to your house you could install swing away hinges or remove the wood work surrounding the door, or even remove the doors completely. If looking for a new house you would need to look at how wide they are to roll through a door with a standard wheelchair you need around 32” to do it comfortably.
- To make the bathroom more accessible you could change the way in which the door opens so it would open outwards instead of inwards there fore creating more floor space. If there is a bath would it be possible to change it for a walk in shower, as this would create more space and also make it easier when wanting to use the wash facilities.