093: The most important home accessibility features

Show Notes

Learn all about The UD Project’s courses here. OT’s can receive continuing education credits from AOTA, and if you’re a homeowner or don’t need the specific credits, click “homeowner” to go to a section with information more applicable to you.

Transcript

Sarah: You’re listening to Good Fit Poor Fit. Our podcast is part of The UD Project, a small business rooted in occupational therapy that looks at how the design of a home environment impacts how well people of different ages and abilities perform everyday activities. We chat about this unique perspective to boost your knowledge and help you consider what can be changed in communities like yours.

Learn more about our work at universaldesign.org.

Hey listeners! Welcome back to another episode of Good Fit Poor Fit, and happy 2025. It’s Sarah here. Rebecca is not at the microphone with me today. But she, and a few new students will be joining me later in the year for some more great podcasts and content about universal design and more.

But to start the year off, I wanted to get a quick [00:01:00] podcast out as I was pondering a question. I’ve been preparing for a local presentation and thinking through some of the details for that. I have been thinking about a common question that I get asked a lot when doing presentations or interviews. We, of course, have taken a lot of time at The UD Project to create some great resources through our courses approved for CEUs through AOTA. I’ll put a link in the show notes for that.

And we’ve talked about countless tips on our podcast regarding all the different things in a home that can be universally designed. But a question we get a lot and that’s often hard to answer is…

“If you could choose the most important feature to make a home more accessible, universal, functional aging in place friendly, inclusive. Pick your term here. What would those features be?”

And that, my friends, is a loaded question to an OT, like [00:02:00] me and maybe you, who has her brain and all of the details, but let’s take a step back and think about all of the thoughts that go into answering that question. Most often when that question is asked, it’s an effort to provide listeners, or attendees of a presentation or a podcast, a few simple things to take and run with in their own home.

Of course we want to make access easy for people, right? Well, first, you need to think about someone’s living situation.

Scenario one. If we think about most of the homes in our country, many people, maybe even yourself, are living in existing homes that aren’t designed with functional features in them in the first place.

So we have to start thinking about how do we modify that current space based on the current design to make it more functional, accessible, universal.

Scenario two. This is the forward thinkers out there. Some people are actually trying to integrate these functional features into a [00:03:00] new build. Yay you! And want to get it right.

So they don’t have to make those changes later. That is fantastic. And probably the easiest way to go.

Scenario three: This is for others of you who are renting a space and you can only do so much based on what the landlord will allow. There is a law out there for reasonable accommodation, and it’s an option where they let you change the structure of that space, but it’s at your own cost.

And then you would have to change it back when you move out. Side note. I will say, if you are in a pinch and struggling to find a living arrangement with any accessible features. A newer apartment complex with dedicated ADA. designation for that apartment will get you some of the way there. But it really doesn’t address everything.

So keep listening, put a pin in that and I’ll explain more. So even after placing yourself in one of these scenarios, so renovating your own home, building a new one, [00:04:00] or a rental property. There are additional questions that remain. How far do we really need to go with accessibility features are a few features okay here and there, or do we need a lot? Do we start with a few and add on later? What are those struggle points for most people who find themselves in a situation, and then they quickly need access for a wheelchair, walker, crutches, or a knee scooter. Is this situation temporary or long-term? What if you’re planning ahead and don’t need the features now, but like the convenience of having it in place? What if I can’t spend a ton of money? Will it look ugly? What options do I have?

Okay. You can see here that this very simple question or seemingly simple question is getting more complicated. And this is why it’s very difficult to answer this question because every home is different. Every situation is different. And so our people’s financial constraints, but there are some basic access features that will provide a great starting point. And are helpful for most everyone [00:05:00] living or visiting that space. But the point of my episode again, is to get you thinking. That you don’t want to stop there.

You don’t want to stop with, Hey, I put a few features here and it’s accessible. So, what are these basic features? As a previous therapist, in an inpatient rehab, we had to think about what could we do to get someone home safely. And often I worked in a team with a physical therapist.

And so that means that as a team, we would need to think about, could they get inside without steps to navigate if they were using a mobility device? So we needed to think about how could they achieve a no step entry or a lot of times they were thinking about how we can make the entrance safer for them, adding hand rails, if they had been able to rehab to be able to do some of the steps. Can they get to their bedroom and their bed to sleep, and can they get to their bathroom to the toilet, the shower to bathe, and do the tasks [00:06:00] at the sink. Therapist’s typically make recommendations for trying new tasks in different ways to adapt how they do things or being able to order equipment, like shower chairs, toilet seats, mobility, aids, adaptive equipment for bathing, um, or cooking, and t to help someone’s functional abilities match, the design of their environment, and t he occupations or things that they need to do. So these are very common, high priority areas of things that need to be considered.

If someone can’t get inside the house, well, they can’t use it. If they can’t get down a hallway or through doorways inside, then they will struggle to gain access to areas like the bedroom or bathroom for daily tasks like sleeping and hygiene. So then the therapist has to think about how can they do those tasks in other areas of the home.

And that’s really not as ideal. So wide doorways, wider hallways… That’s another basic accessibility need. [00:07:00] Oftentimes, people would put lever handles on doors and change out their faucets to make them easier to use. As well, as rocker, light switches. Um, and those are some things that are often added to this basic list. These are generally simple fixes in regard to the lever handles on doors and rocker light switches, and they are commonly found in most stores.

So that can easily be like a quick hardware store pickup. And it’s typically not a big deal. There’s also a debate out there if we really need rocker light switches or not. We can talk about that another day. Uh, but grab bars and handheld shower heads are also typically recommended for safety too. So, do you remember back when I was mentioning apartments? The ADA guidelines implemented in apartments really do have most of those basic needs met as far as what’s chosen for those apartments.

But it often doesn’t really go beyond that basic first-floor access with grab bars, maybe a higher toilet. Maybe some extra floor space [00:08:00] in the bathroom.

And so again, this is a great option. If a complex has an ADA unit. But often they aren’t available. They don’t have a ton to pick from, and sometimes people residing in those units don’t even need those features. So someone with a disability actually can struggle to find an ADA apartment unit that really works for them.

And oftentimes when people find those units, they stay in there a long time because it’s hard to find anything else out there.

So why is it better to go beyond ADA access, basic access? Because life just doesn’t happen in a few spaces in our home. People find themselves stuck in parts of their home because the other parts are cut off to them because of barriers. I’ve experienced with my husband using a wheelchair or heard of situations where people can get into the front door. But they can’t get downstairs to their beloved workshop or they can get through the bathroom door, but the can’t [00:09:00] get close enough to the toilet because there’s a wall in the way, or they can’t comfortably reach the sink to spit toothpaste in it because there’s lower cabinets under the sink. I met a lady once who couldn’t get into her bathroom because her wheelchair wouldn’t fit through the 22 inch bathroom doorway.

And so she had to do all of her grooming tasks, including washing her hair, brushing her teeth. Things like that at the kitchen sink. And she managed it and she took it in stride. But obviously who wants to do that in the place that they’re making their food? So once you get some of those basic things in place that I mentioned. There is kind of a sigh of relief that you can at least move through your home and you can at least get to your bedroom and do tasks in the bathroom. But then you also have to consider, what is important to each person living that at home? What daily things do they want to access and do in their life? If the family all goes down into the basement to watch TV, how will that [00:10:00] impact a person who can’t go down the steps when they come back home or even visit?

What if there’s a mom who her role is taking care of her family, she wants to make meals and she wants to do laundry and care for her family. You can’t stop at wide doorways and no steps to get inside because these other tasks in the home are important too. There is a complex thought process that many occupational therapists love to do.

And that is analyze how people do activities based on how they’re completed in the design of the environment. This mindset of doing an activity analysis and understanding how people reach, turn, move, and manipulate things outside of the normal way bodies move, allows us to provide input on how to make the design of homes even more functional. Asking people with disabilities about what they need and their caregivers is great too. Not everyone can do things independently and will most likely need assistance. Helping someone transfer to a [00:11:00] shower where the caregiver barely has room to move between the chair and a wall can be a big frustration for them as well. Now, if you go into a situation where you have a new space and can make it accessible from the start. Let’s make it accessible through and through you have a wonderful opportunity here to put more accessibility into this home.

And if you’re a builder and designer get more accessible properties out in the market, we need more in the housing market. Of course, you want to put those basic features in their wider doorways, no steps at any entrance, and open spaces to move around, and make those a priority. But the details matter beyond that, making things easy to reach in kitchens and bathrooms, larger bedroom footprints for maneuvering around the bed, extra storage options, access to backyards, porches, garages, spaces for learning are working and laundry areas without steps, wide pathways.

We need to analyze daily activities that [00:12:00] people do in the home and make the design match the needs of people who are short, tall, seated, standing, hopping, rolling. All of the above. It really just makes sense for when you need life’s task to be easier for the short-term or a long-term situation. And even if it’s not that person in that unit right now, homes are around for a really long time and it will be helpful for people who might move into that space decades later. So what are my top five features for people to consider? Great question and it depends. We have a lot of great resources in our courses for what options people have in considering living in their own spaces. Complete with product ideas and ideal measurements and specifications.

If you’re a homeowner, these are great resources for you as you consider what’s important for your space. But if you’re a builder or designer, or just an advocate in this area, or an OT working with people. This is [00:13:00] valuable and helpful for you as well. So I’d love to hear from you. What would you say if someone asked you about the most important accessible features in a home?

Thanks for listening to Good Fit Poor Fit. If you want to learn more… first, find more episodes with transcripts and show notes at goodfitpoorfit.com. Don’t forget to subscribe! Second, check out our courses at go.universaldesign.org.

We cover housing topics like advocacy, collaboration, home modification, universal design and task adaptations. Lastly, if you have questions or topics you’d like us to discuss, email us at [email protected]. Thanks for fitting us into your day.