If the use of a wheelchair is something that has become part of your lifestyle recently, you may already be living in a property that doesn’t have the best wheelchair access. Below are a few suggestions on how you can adjust your property to make getting around your home easier.
Install Wheelchair Ramps
The most obvious adjustment you can make to your home is by having exterior wheelchair ramps installed. This is the simplest way to allow wheelchair access into your home, particularly if you need to walk up a set of steps to enter it. They’re usually made from concrete, or if you would prefer, you could have a wooden one made that can be removed if this is an easier option for you.
Widen Doorways
You may want to consider making your home more comfortable for wheelchair users by widening the doorways. This will allow for more room for wheelchairs to pass through comfortably without getting stuck or scuffing the door frames. You will need a contractor to do this for you as it is a structural remodel; you can find tips on hiring a contractor here.
Have a Stairlift Installed
If you live in a property with at least two floors, you’ll need to look into getting a stairlift installed. You might have to widen the staircase for this, depending on how narrow it is, to fit a stairlift in, which will be another job for a contractor. You might have decided to turn one of the rooms downstairs into a bedroom if there is bathroom access on the lower floors, but a stairlift is a must if this isn’t the case.
Sliding Doors
Sliding doors that lead to a patio are attractive features in a home and are easy to use but having automated sliding doors put in could make things easier for those in a wheelchair. The automated sliding door systems at evoproducts.com could be a great adjustment to your home if you want to make it more accessible for wheelchair users so they can get in and out of the backyard with ease.
Lower Kitchen Worktops
Preparing meals and cooking for yourself is important, but if you’re in a wheelchair, you might struggle to reach the kitchen worktops properly from a lower position. To make sure you or the person using the wheelchair in your home can still prepare food independently, look at having some or all of the kitchen worktops lowered to prepare and cook their meals safely.
Have a Wet-Room Type Shower
Where possible, consider turning your bathroom into a wet room, as this will make showering more comfortable. As there will be a lot more space, it will be more straightforward to maneuver the wheelchair into the shower area. Ask professional bathroom designers to help you develop your wet room design to ensure you have all the right things you need to make it wheelchair friendly. On the alternate side, you could also purchase a shower chair, or have your shower converted into a walk-https://havenlock.com/ in shower with a build in chair.
You can make other modifications to your property for better wheelchair access, but these are just a few examples you may want to consider.
Would you be able to use an American link? I found this one, HGTV is a popular home/gardening channel here.
Wet-room showers aren’t as popular in the US as in Europe, could we make the paragraph/title more about accommodable showers? I added a sentence at the end about shower chairs (a plastic chair that is moveable) and walk-in showers with build in chairs, which are fairly popular here. Maybe you can change the paragraph a bit in line with that, feel free to improve/change that sentence too. Still mention the Wet-Room, just not be the sole focus.
