People who don’t have mobility issues often don’t see how the world is built for able-bodied people. You probably don’t think twice about how you can easily climb the few steps that lead up to your front door or how you don’t have trouble getting into the bathtub. However, these small tasks and ones like them tend to be major obstacles for people with physical disabilities.
If you have a family member or friend who has a physical disability, they may find your home difficult to navigate. Luckily, there are many ways you can make your home more accessible to someone with mobility issues. Let’s take a look at a few of the most helpful ways you can modify your home to be friendlier for people with disabilities
Modify Steps at the Entry
Getting into a home can be the first barrier for a person with a disability. More than 20 million people over the age of 18 face serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs. If you have steps leading to your front door, think about how you can make getting into your home easier for anyone who may be among those 20 million people. Start by considering if you have a back door or side door that doesn’t have any stairs. If you do, make sure that the paths to get to these doors are easy to traverse by clearing out overgrown weeds or leveling uneven concrete. If the front door is your home’s only entry point, create a ramp so that the stairs don’t bar someone from coming into your home.
Install a Stairlift
Stairs inside of your home are going to be just as difficult as the ones outside for people who have trouble walking. An easy way to still give them access to the other floors in your home is to install a stairlift. National Stairlifts come in a wide variety of styles so you can get one that matches your interior decor and style. As the global population of people 60 years and older is expected to double between now and 2050, jumping to 22%, a stairlift in your home could come in handy for any of your family members, or yourself, who may be part of that aging population. There are stairlifts that can even be installed outdoors, potentially solving issues with the front steps as well.
Switch Out Your Doorknobs
While walking and climbing stairs is a more common physical disability, it is certainly not the only one. Another physical barrier that people often face is the ability to grip objects. This can make opening or closing doors with traditional doorknobs a challenge. Many styles of doorknobs are cumbersome and difficult to grip. Consider replacing your doorknobs with push/pull bars or press lever handles. With 67% of internet users saying that they shop online because of the wider variety of options available there, try scouring the web for styles that suit your personal taste. This small adjustment can help make your home just a little easier to traverse for anyone who has difficulty gripping.
Modifying your home to be more accessible for people with disabilities shouldn’t be a major challenge. All you have to do is look at your home from their perspective and identify any problem areas. With this mindset, you can make every room in your home more accessible and safer for people with disabilities.
Additional resources:
- Visit Cerebral Palsy Family Network To Get More Accessibility Tips
- Hearing Loss: What Comes Next?
- On The Pandemic And Accessibility
