A Home Accessible to Mobility Devices

I think designing homes to allow a person to age in place is great (and of course, we have to make the community accessible as well). So I was interested in this article that discussed making the home accessible when the resident used a walker or wheelchair. Kaiser Health News ran the article, How To Make A Home Much More Friendly To Seniors Using Wheelchairs Or Walkers. The article offers this sobering statistic “Researchers at the Harvard center found that fewer than 10 percent of seniors live in homes or apartments outfitted with basic features that enhance accessibility — notably, entrances without steps, extra-wide hallways or doors needed for people with wheelchairs or walkers.”  Yet, “[a]bout 2 million older adults in the U.S. use wheelchairs, according to the U.S. Census Bureau; another 7 million use canes, crutches or walkers… [and] [t]hat number is set to swell with the aging population: Twenty years from now, 17 million U.S. households will include at least one mobility-challenged older adult, according to a December report from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.”

The article discusses a list of items to be considered so that the home is accessible, including a ramp into the home, wider doors, turning radius, removal of under the sink cabinets, showers without curbs, and more.