4 Ways to Make Your Home Wheelchair Accessible

Has a loved one of yours recently become wheelchair-bound? Whether this is the result of old age or a mobility-limiting accident, you have to make life as easy as possible for them by making your home wheelchair accessible. This will allow them to retain both the standard of living and quality of life that they deserve, and it will no doubt make life a whole lot easier for you as well.

Fear not, as making your home wheelchair accessible need not be as arduous a task as it sounds. If you heed all of the following advice, you will be able to take on this challenge with minimal fuss and hassle.

Here are four ways you can make your home wheelchair accessible:

Inspect and renovate your home

Depending on how your home is designed and laid out, you may have to go the whole hog and have it renovated if you want to make it wheelchair accessible.

Fear not, as this doesn’t necessarily have to entail you completely transforming your home and spending a lot of money in the process. If you thoroughly inspect your property beforehand, you will be able to pinpoint the specific aspects of it that need to be renovated in order for it to be made wheelchair accessible. When you conduct this inspection, be sure to take the following factors into consideration:

• Are your door frames wide enough for a wheelchair to pass through them comfortably?
• Is your flooring likely to obstruct the wheelchair as it travels around your home?
• How easy is it going to be for your wheelchair-bound loved one to use your washroom and kitchen?

If upon your inspection, you discover that you aren’t going to be able to meet these conditions, then you should get to work right away with your renovation. The sooner this work is complete, the sooner your loved one will be able to get used to their new stage of life.

Tend to your doorways

Doorways will always prove to be a particularly difficult challenge in this instance, simply because wheelchairs cannot always gain easy access through them. If, after the aforementioned inspection, you do not think that your doorways are wheelchair-friendly, you should get to work right away intending to them.

You can achieve this by:

• Installing a ramp on your doorstep or removing the doorstep completely to ensure easy access through your front door
• Widening your doorframes to ensure that they are at least 900 mm (35”) wide
• Fitting a lower peephole to your front door 

Install a stairlift

This goes without saying but, just for the record, wheelchairs, and stairs aren’t at all compatible. If your loved one wants to continue accessing the second floor of your home, this means that you need to install a stairlift. 

Should this be an avenue that you have to go down in order to make your home more wheelchair accessible, be sure to turn to a reputable engineer such as South Wales Mobility? With South Wales stairlifts installed by an expert supplier with experience in the field of supplying, installing and maintaining stairlifts, this will ensure that your lift doesn’t malfunction no matter how often it is used on a daily basis. As a result, your loved one will be able to safely navigate the stairs and access your upstairs amenities for years to come.

The flooring you need

As mentioned, your flooring cannot be wheelchair-obstructive if you want to make your home truly accessible in this instance. To ensure that your floors don’t hold you back from creating a wheelchair accessible home, you should opt for the following types of flooring:

• Hardwood
• Laminate
• Ceramic tiles
• Vinyl

Alec Neufeld’s extensive background in the construction trade fuels his passion for alternative energy and green building methods. A retired builder, he now enjoys a freelance writing career, alongside helping people as a general contractor.