I am in a wheelchair. At the swimming pool the other day I met a woman who told me that her daughter had just qualified for a Habitat for Humanity house. She has been in and out of a wheelchair and was going to move in with her daughter when the house was completed. She was wondering whether some accessibility features could be added to the design.
Since Habitat is probably the roll model for affordable housing in the US and now internationally, they could also be a roll model for building accessibility into the design. I don’t know anything about their designs or the policy toward accessibility. I believe that all new houses should be designed with accessibility in mind.
Some simple things can be done in the design phase which have little or no effect on the cost. For instance level entry, wider doors and toilets that are not built into little phone booths. A bathroom and a room that can be used as a bedroom on the first floor should be included. You don’t have to put grab bars everywhere or make it look like a hospital, but simple things make all the difference in the world. The grab bars can be added when they are needed.
Nobody plans to be disabled. People get old, break legs etc. and find themselves in an awful environment where they become housebound or have to move out because of the limitations of their house.
I guess that I have become somewhat of an activist. INDEPENDENCE is everything.
Replies
I agree! Another easy change is lower switches and higher plugs. Simple during construction but messy and costly as a retro fit. Also 32" doors through out the house.
Don't get mad get a bigger hammer!
I'm just home for a quick lunch, but I'm almost positive there was an article not too long ago about buiulding cabinets that could easilly be converted to fully accessible...was that in FHB? Anyone remember? I'll check back later, but I'm sure someone else will remember that article.
Wasn't there a book called "Building for a Lifetime" or something like that, that had a boatload of ideas...like a protected area to set down groceries while unlocking the front door that made sense for all of us but particularly for people in chairs?
I purchased that "Building for a Lifetime" book. It has a lot of good info in it. I didn't find a lot of good books on this subject, but this one was worth buying.
I think that that should be required reading for all architects, contractors and developers.
Jim, I used to design, build houses, one of the things I would do is put in alot of backing behind the drywall in the bathroom areas. I would look for any conceable place anyone would want a grab bar or towel hanger then nail in a scrap block of 2x8. before the drywall went up I took a photo of all the walls and gave them to the home owner for future reference. This might have taken a 1/2 hour of my time but it gave people some options later on. So far I have only had to go back once to install grab bars around a tub but what was a 20 minute job could very well have been an all dayer with out the blocking.
Jim
I build a house for Hab. for Hum. each year and we did one for a family that had a child(14 yrs old) that was wheel chair bound and we were able to provide everything that the girl needed and it had absolutely no effect on the cost of building the house, we were able to provide everything she needed because it was done when the house was being built. We did blocking in bathrooms on every house just because it was easy to do at building time, just as we did in the kitchens for cabinets, so easy to do when framing and when its volunteer help the cost is irrelevant. Wider doors were the same basically in cost as narrow ones and building the ramp for the front or side door was not much in terms of wood use compared to the porch or steps that were going to be installed.
I can see where doing some of this stuff would be expensive to do retro though.
Doug
I'm a graduate student who has been researching accessibility in housing in the Twin Cities. Habitat and the Courage Center in Minneapolis have nearly completed an accessible house that incorporates assistive technology very specifically designed to help the residents around their new home. If you're interested in the project, contact the Twin Cities Habitat or the Courage Center. You can visit the web site at http://www.courage.org for more information.
Joanne Tobey, wife of Steve Zerby
Jim,
On another thread, we were wondering about the ADA required spacing of 18.25" of toilets from the walls [instead of say, 24"]. For the wheel-less amongst us, does this make an important difference?
-Peter
A wheelchair is typically 25 inches wide. If I am going to transfer from the chair to the john, I would like at least that. Right now we are just starting to remodel my bathroom. All the toilets in the house are set in little phone booths. Getting on the toilet takes a bit of acrobatics. I am looking forward to being able to get from the chair to the john to the shower without doing the strange things that I have to do now.