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How YOU Can Design A Dream House… That Will Increase Mobility And Independence For The Disabled, Elderly or Less Mobile And Handicapped Inhabitants.
How YOU Can Design A Dream House… That Will Increase Mobility And Independence For The Disabled, Elderly or Less Mobile And Handicapped Inhabitants.
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The best solution for the problem of putting stair lifts, wheel chair lifts and other assistive technology into your home, is to design your new home incorporating all the features required to create mobility and independence.
Universal Design is an idea to make a house and its features usable to ALL people, no matter what their handicaps are.
Universal Design is an idea to make a house and its features usable to ALL people, no matter what their handicaps are.
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The first step is to plan…
After much thought and planning, put together a list of features required for your new home. Things to consider for your independence creating home are:
You can design the entrance with a very gradual ramp that is not conspicuous, and does not require a stair lift or an elevator to get into the house.
For Stair Lifts…
Then put in a very wide flight of stairs to the second floor, which could easily take a simple straight stair lift to take you to the upper floor. This may sound like a minor point, but you want to avoid at all cost a spiral stair or any curved type of stairwell. This requires a much more expensive and complicated stair lift.
For wheel chairs…
Other features particularly important for people in wheelchairs are to have no light switches more than 36 inches above the floor. Plan doors without moulding at the bottom so a wheelchair or a walker can freely enter. The same intention is behind all your doors being at least 36 inches wide.
Of most importance is…
Your new bathroom. Here one needs many unique features such as a curbless shower, with a wide bench. This is less of a problem than it appears, since the floor of the shallow still slopes downward to a drain, to keep water from getting all over the bathroom. There should be a large bathroom on the first floor with decorative grab bars, and even room for a separate curbless shower and a large bath tub, with several grab bars.
Also it is better to have multiple shower heads at different heights to create ease of use. The master bedroom would need to be right next to the full bathroom on the first floor. If possible, a straight staircase, even if it needed to be more narrow would be needed to the basement, again to create the opportunity to put in a straight stair lift.
Finally, the kitchen would need cabinets at various levels, some of them accessible to people in wheelchairs. There would be lower benches and open knee space under the cooking range and under key cabinets.
The entire house would have either wood panel flooring, or dense carpet with a low piling, for easy access to people on a wheelchair. To get more information and to get help designing your own dream home and understand these theories of universal design, go to www.universaldesign.org.