Modifying Your Kansas City Home for Wheelchair Accessibility
Kansas City Home Care • July 5, 2017
Have you found your Kansas City home’s no longer user friendly now that you’re in a wheelchair? If the chair’s going to be temporary, you may be able to live with it with some help from a caregiver and a few minor adjustments. If it’s going to be permanent, you’ll need to make some bigger changes. Here’s a checklist of what you need to consider.
Home Entry
- Choose the best entrance. If your front door has steps, it may not be your easiest way in. If you can roll straight in from your garage, that may be your best option.
- Build a wheelchair ramp. If there are stairs in both the front of your home and in your garage, you’ll need a wheelchair ramp or a lift.
- Widen your entry door. You’ll need at least a 32″ clearance to get the wheelchair comfortably through the door (most doors are 23″-27″). In some cases, reversing the swing of the door will allow it to open wider so you can roll through.
Living Room/Hallways
- Rearrange furniture. Make sure there’s room for you to comfortably maneuver the chair.
- Lower furniture. Tables, in particular, may need to be lowered to accomodate the chair.
- Widen doorways. Again, you’ll need at least a 32″ clearance. In some cases, it may be easiest to just remove the door. Or you can install pocket doors. Or again, try reversing the swing to allow the door to open wider. Add rubber ramps to help with thresholds.
- Remove rugs. Rugs aren’t great for rolling. Neither are carpets, but if they’re low pile, you should be okay to roll. Wood floors or tile work best.
Bathrooms
- Replace the tub with a shower. A roll-in shower is optimal. A shower seat is also a good idea.
- Install grab bars. Put grab bars by the toilet and in the shower for safety.
- Install sinks without vanity cabinets. Removing vanity cabinets will allow you to get closer to the sink; it will also give you more room to manuever, in general.
Bedroom
- Lower the bed. If your bed sits up high, find a way to lower it. The easiest way is to take it off the frame.
- Widen doors to walk-in closets. Or just take them off if that will give you enough space to roll in. Again, you can also install pocket doors or change the way the doors swing.
- Lower clothing rails in closets. Lower rails will allow you to reach your clothes without help. You may also want to add some lower shelves and/or cubbies.
Kitchen
- Lower countertops. This will give you access to work space and allow you to reach appliances. If lowering the countertops isn’t an option, add a pull-out cutting board for work space and move appliances to where they’re within reach. An appliance cart may be usefull if you have space.
- Rearrange shelves. Make sure items you use most often are within reach.
- Add pull out shelves to cabinets. Pull-out shelves will make it easier for you to reach items stored in the back.
- Get a side-by-side refrigerator and a range with front controls. A side-by-side regrigerator will give you easier access to both the refrigerator and the freezer. And without front controls on the range, you may not be able to use it at all.
- Remove the base from the sink cabinet. Removing the cabinet base will create easier access to the sink.
Stairs
- If you live in a house that has stairs and you need access to the upstairs rooms, you’ll need to install a chair lift.
This all may sound pretty daunting, but you don’t have to do it alone. If you have someone who’s helping you with care at home, see if he or she is able to help you make some adjustments. For major updates (e.g., a wheelchair ramp), you’ll want to hire a Kansas City (or Independence, or Overland Park) contractor who has expertise in making homes wheelchair accessible.
The post Modifying Your Kansas City Home for Wheelchair Accessibility appeared first on Kansas City Home Care.
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