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When discussing accessibility, we´re talking about the “solution to all the architectural barriers we come up against in our day to day routine”. It may seem very simple when summarising the issue like this, but let's imagine a normal home: what items might hinder the day-to-day life of a person with a disability or reduced mobility? If you stop to think about it, you´ll recall plenty of factors that need to be taken into account in order to make a home accessible.
Before addressing the issue, we would like to remind you of our articles on accessible lifts, which will clarify doubts such as what measures should they comply with? Or what is an accessible lift? These articles talk about current paradigms and provide greater details on all the factors to be taken into account when installing a lift (add links). Today, on the other hand, we´re going straight to your home, to your habitual residence, and pose the question...
2. How you can adapt your home to make it accessible
We need to start from the beginning here. What do we need to take into account? We will recapitulate below in order to conduct an analysis in greater detail:
- Opening doors: something as simple as going through a door, which for us is a far lesser concern than for a person in a wheelchair - for example – can be a major architectural barrier. We need to take both the width and the method used to open the door into account.
- Corridors: both the width and whether moving between different rooms involves having to turn or go round a bend need to be taken into account, in addition to whether a person in a wheelchair or with reduced mobility would find it difficult to maneuver without any problem.
- Objects and rooms in the house: when placing different items such as tables, shelves, etc., in your home, you need to take the maximum height of each object into account to ensure this doesn´t create an obstacle for a disabled person. Imagine what it would be like for such a person to have to reach for a book on the bottom shelf of a tall bookcase. Every detail of your home needs to be adapted and adjusted in order to prevent this type of adverse situation and to make life easier for everyone living there.
- Non-slip flooring material to ensure people with walking difficulties or in a wheelchair have no trouble moving around.
- Toilets: yes, this is one of the rooms that requires the greatest care in a home, as the shower need to be fully aligned with the height of the other fittings in a bathroom (wash basin, towel rail, etc.).
In addition to all the aforementioned these details, we also need to take into account, for example, the entrance and exit to our home. Is it on the ground floor? Does it have front steps? Inside ... do you need to use stairs to reach a higher floor? For all these questions, we return to the subject of adapted / accessible lifts and the potential solutions for each specific situation. If, for example, we are dealing with a two-floor house, we could install a platform stair lift to help bypass the flight of stairs using the same route. If the barrier in question is a small flight of front entrance steps, we recommend installing a vertical lift or PEV.
These are the most common barriers found in blocks of flats, however, in the case of a house or a duplex apartment with a swimming pool, you will also need to address other factors such as adapting the pool. We at General Elevadores have easy-to-install pool lifts designed with the sole purpose of making your home 100% accessible. To find out more about how GE works on matters related to accessibility, we invite you to visit our website here