Show Notes:
Transcript:
Sarah: [00:00:00] 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.
This episode is part of an ongoing series here on Good Fit Poor Fit. We’re going deep on residential universal design specifications, walking through every major area of the home with an occupational therapy lens. Along the way, you’ll hear stories about real people. Whose lives are shaped by the design choices we discuss.
Whether you are a rehab therapist, a designer, a builder, or someone thinking [00:01:00] ahead about your own home, this series is built for you. Start with episode 107 for the full picture. A good fit doesn’t happen by accident. Let’s get into it.
Sarah: Hello, Good Fit Poor Fit Listeners. Welcome back to another episode. If you’ve been joining us recently, we’ve been taking an in-depth look at the ideal features for our homes. Most recently, we’ve been discussing parking and outdoor pathways. These features aren’t for people with disabilities only, but serve a wider range of ages and are convenient for everyday tasks.
Rebecca: That’s right. One of the goals of this podcast is to help people understand that the benefit of universally designed indoor and outdoor spaces has way more impact on people’s lives than most people think. That’s why today’s topic of outdoor pathway widths and slopes is so important. I know, it, it doesn’t sound like it.
It sounds pretty niche. But once we get into it, I think you’ll realize it’s pretty important. We’re even gonna take our discussion into solutions at a [00:02:00] variety of different price points. I’m looking forward to this topic today ’cause it’s something everyone can relate to in different situations. Whether you’ve encountered it at your home or at someone else’s home, this is something that I think is gonna resonate with everyone.
Sarah: When I worked at an inpatient rehabilitation unit as an OT, I had a teammate who was a PT, and we both split the home up in sections to make sure in our treatment sessions, we considered all the possible areas of the home that may need to be discussed to make sure someone could get inside safely and do the tasks they found important. We wanted to make sure they were prepared to discharge home based on what they had going on from a medical standpoint. A big question my PT teammate would often ask included the details of a pathway from where that person typically parked their car, and what did the route look like to the closest or most accessible entrance into their home? She’d have them describe it to her, and there were [00:03:00] so many variations from parking in driveways to carports and garages, on the street, or walking from a bus stop. Additionally, depending on the orientation of the home on the lot, the pathway could be really long or a few feet to the closest door. Yet, most of the time the details were very general that they shared with her.
Rebecca: I think this is so common. So then as a practitioner, you have to pry a little bit more. What type of surface is the pathway? Concrete, grass, brick, asphalt? Is it smooth? Is it bumpy? What color is it? Are there any steps in the path or big cracks that feel like steps?
All these details are really important.
Sarah: Exactly. And then you go deeper into the conversation and ask about slope, which usually comes with a pause. It’s more like the pause when somebody realizes they’ve never thought about the question or they’re not quite sure how to answer it. Because slope is not a category most people carry around when they picture their front [00:04:00] path, there might be steps, people know about the steps, but a path that tilts or slants, in what direction?
By how much? We’d get really vague descriptions like, “Oh, it’s pretty flat,” or, “Um, the yard does slope a little toward the street for drainage, and goes up a little toward the front door, and that’s just how it’s always been.” And that’s the moment I find most useful, because what they’re describing, a path that runs slightly downhill towards the street, gets flat, and then slopes up to the front porch, or tips slightly sideways as you walk along it, is a path that is doing something to everyone who uses it, something that doesn’t show up very well in any photo of the house. Oftentimes, it looks different in person from what you understand when described, and it even will feel different to that person and their family after they’re dealing with an accident or injury that changes how they navigate the path. Yet those who have lived there have walked that path over hundreds of [00:05:00] times without it ever registering that that same path may feel a little different in different circumstances. Width is a part of this conversation, too. Pathways narrow over time. Plants grow in from one side. I just actually had to cut back some bushes this week because they were taking up too much of the sidewalk. Mulch spreads, and weeds start encroaching on the sidewalk. But today, we’re focusing on the geometry of the pathway, not what it’s made of. We covered surface materials a couple episodes back, but its dimensions. How wide is it? How much it rises or drops in the direction of travel, and how much it tilts from side to side. Three things that have an impact on the people who use it every day.
Rebecca: Now, if you heard us starting to talk about numbers and you’re thinking, “Nope, mm-mm, that’s not for me. I’m not gonna be able to figure this out. I can’t do numbers,” you’re not alone. This stuff can feel really daunting. We’re talking about slope and rise and run, and this can conjure stressful thoughts of high school or middle school [00:06:00] geometry.
But have no fear, listeners, we’re gonna try and boil this down to clear, actionable information, so please don’t click pause. Just hang with us. So anyway, as OTs, we approach the entrance route differently from how most homeowners might see it. Typically, the surface type and look get attention in the conversation.
The geometry almost never does because a lot of people don’t have personal experience pushing a wheelchair on any type of slope or moving with a walker when they’re struggling with their endurance or having difficulty with balance. I think about my mom-mom who recently had an ankle injury. She’d been to our house thousands of times before, but after that injury, when her balance was a bit compromised, our driveway, which used to be an easy, not even have to think about it surface to navigate, became a real barrier.
For the first time, her balance was a bit off, and her ankle didn’t have the strength it used to to stabilize her as she walked up. So we had to make some adjustments to her visit to make sure that she was able to be safe. Of course, this was a visit, but if it were the [00:07:00] home that my mom-mom lived in all the time, we’d be wanting to know some of the information Sarah and I are gonna discuss today.
These measurements that could help us make the pathway safe and usable. So when I’m looking at an entrance route, the pathway is one of the first things I check out.
Let’s start with width. The specification for a residential pathway is forty-eight inches, so four feet, measured at the narrowest point of the walking surface, clear of any edging, plants, or anything else that could get pushed into the path to obstruct the movement forward. So forty-eight inches sounds like a lot when you’re picturing a standard residential sidewalk.
Most of them are probably between thirty-six inches, often probably less. But forty-eight inches really gives a pathway a functional margin for the range of people and situations that it’s gonna serve.
Sarah: Now let’s pair that measurement with a quick discussion regarding the measurements we’re looking at based on the equipment people use. Not all wheelchairs take up the same amount of space. It [00:08:00] varies with how wide a person’s body is. They need their bottom to sit on the seat comfortably, which impacts the width, how long their legs are, which impacts how much space is needed when a chair turns if their legs aren’t kind of tucked in underneath a chair. And sometimes they extend out, which has a greater impact inside the house, but we’ll save that for another episode.
Wheelchair types vary. They can be powered with a battery and recharged, called a power chair. Not electric chair, because that has other connotations. These you’ll typically see have a little joystick that people move the chair with their hand. Secondly, they can be pushed by the person using it with wheels on the side, or a caregiver can push from behind, and that’s called a manual wheelchair. Most people who will be using wheelchairs longer term have them custom-made for them. Many others have a standard wheelchair that is issued to them when they leave the hospital. And while that’s, not as custom, these are a common [00:09:00] mode of transportation for many who could possibly use it for a shorter amount of time.
Rebecca: So
Sarah: based on that information, wheelchair specs can vary widely. On average, power chair wheelchairs could be twenty-four to thirty-two inches in width. You’re also accounting for any armrests that pop out to the sides as well. A manual chair, you have to think about the width of the seat, then account for the wheels and hand rims that take up space on either side. Plus, the person propelling it has arm movements that extends beyond the chair’s footprint. So while you can measure the chair from wheel to wheel at its widest point, which could be twenty-four to twenty-eight inches, give or take a few, you’re also wanting additional room to not have to squeeze a person into a certain path or through a doorway ’cause their body will take up additional space as well.
Rebecca: Right. And so similarly, rollator walkers, like the ones you’ve probably seen with a seat, they’re kind of like the Cadillac of walkers. They got a lot going on. And standard metal folding walkers, [00:10:00] these can typically run around those same width specs, but the person using it needs room to move, stop, shift their balance, and angle it while moving or turning.
So on a 48-inch path, considering these mobility devices, there’s a margin on each side. If you need to shift direction slightly ’cause there’s a crack in the surface, a wet patch, some snow, or just a moment of inattention that takes you off of a straight path, there’s somewhere to go without stepping off the path or rolling into mulch or getting your wheel stuck. People don’t always travel in a perfectly straight line every time they use a pathway. Someone might turn slightly toward a companion they’re walking with, or they might angle partway around because they realize they left something in the car.
They might stop and rotate to say something to someone behind them before they keep going forward. So any deviation from the straight line requires more from that device’s footprint.
It’s important to keep in mind, though, that this 48-inch specification is a minimum. It’s not a [00:11:00] number that works equally well for every person. So really, if you can make it a little wider, that would be great. Think about if someone is walking with a partner and they both use mobility aids, or if someone lives in a larger body.
Everyone should be able to comfortably stroll down a pathway side by side with someone, regardless of their mobility aids, their body size, or any other access needs. When you don’t use mobility aids or live in a larger body, this is something that can be easy to take for granted. Building empathy around this and incorporating experiences unlike our own into design is so incredibly important to ensure that everyone can equitably access communities and activities that they want and need to.
Sarah: I think that’s a really great point and a neat way to look at this. Like, I think of it like pushing a grocery cart compared to a walker or rolling cart. We definitely don’t stay on the straight path when we’re in a grocery store moving the grocery cart, or like you just described, those walkers and wheelchairs. We often feel cramped in a store with narrow aisles or [00:12:00] displays placed close together. I’m sure you’ve all felt that before. So it’s no different on a sidewalk. So why would we try to squeeze people with mobility devices into a smaller footprint? Just things to think about. There’s also a visual dimension to this too, and it’s one I think often gets overlooked with the width conversation. For someone with low vision, the width of the path matters most when they can actually see the sides where it ends. A pathway that blends into the surrounding landscaping, like a light concrete fading into pale gravel or beige paver running through tan mulch, gives very little information about where the walking surface stops and where the edge begins. A change in color or texture along the sides of the pathway communicates that boundary before someone steps or rolls off of it. Sometimes the landscaping itself handles this naturally. Dark mulch against light concrete reads very clearly, and that contrast is doing work for people who need it. But when the [00:13:00] materials don’t create that distinction on their own, an intentional border in contrasting color or a different surface texture along the path edges serves the same purpose. It’s often a straightforward addition an otherwise complete design, and it extends the usability of the path to people whose navigation depends on being able to see where they are on that pathway.
Rebecca: So width also matters in situations that have nothing to do with mobility equipment. It’s about what a pathway needs to accommodate the range of real situations that it will actually face. Two people walking side by side probably need about forty-eight inches. A parent with a stroller, furniture or appliance delivery people, someone carrying a child or a pet and a bag, or moving boxes, all of these things require you to have room to shift the load without stepping off of a ledge.
The next number we’re gonna talk about is running slope.
This is the slope in the direction of travel, so the up and down, going forward and backward on the path as [00:14:00] you move along it. The specification is one to twenty. So for every twenty inches of horizontal distance, the path should rise or fall no more than one inch. So that’s a really gentle grade. So gentle, in fact, that you might not even perceive it as a grade at all.
It might feel pretty flat if you were walking on it. But why does this matter? It really depends on who’s asking. For someone propelling a manual wheelchair, a running slope that exceeds one to twenty means working against gravity on the way to the house and braking against it on the way back. The mechanical load is cumulative over the length of the path.
So if it was a really long driveway with a slope that exceeds one to twenty, that’s gonna get pretty tiring. For someone walking with a cane or a walker, a slope changes the weight distribution every time you take a step, so it’s asking more of you with every step you take as you move up that pathway.
There’s also a wet weather dimension here that I think matters more than it sounds like it [00:15:00] might. A running slope that’s really manageable on a dry day in good shoes becomes a really different situation in rain, or snow, or early in the morning if there’s frost or dew. The moments when people are moving quickly, maybe they’re rushing to the car, they’re arriving home in a downpour trying to get out of the rain, those are exactly the moments when a slope that exceeds these specs creates the most risk.
Sarah: That is a really good point about the weather. We often don’t think of that on a sunny day. So the one to twelve slope comes up in these conversations sometimes because it’s familiar from the ADA standards. So this is steeper than a one to twenty. It’s the maximum slope for a ramp, the one to twelve, and I want to be clear about where that sits relative to what we’re talking about. One to twelve is the max, the steepest grade that qualifies as accessible for a ramp element. The pathway specification one to twenty, those are not the same number, and they’re not [00:16:00] interchangeable. It’s not as steep. One to twelve is passable, some say doable, and one to twenty is where a pathway is genuinely comfortable for the widest range of people. It’s safer, and it’s not going to require as much energy output for many people, like Rebecca just described.
Rebecca: Right. And when a pathway has a grade that can’t be reduced ’cause the site just has a lot of elevation change between where someone parks and the door is, you have some options. You could maybe reroute the pathway to make it less steep, or you could consider a ramp. So we’ll go deep on ramp design in the next episode, flat landings at the top and bottom, handrails on both sides. But let’s put a pin in that for now. Let’s dive in to talk a little bit about cross slope.
So this is the companion slope to running slope. So if running slope talks about the slope in the direction that you’re moving, say up and down a pathway the cross slope is the one that moves side to side. So if you are [00:17:00] moving from the left side of your driveway to the right side of your driveway. And this is one that people probably don’t think about a ton, and it can catch you really off guard.
So here are a couple ways to think about it. Imagine what you experience in a carnival funhouse ride, you know, the ones when the floor pushes you off to one side and takes you off of your balance.
Or imagine you place a ball onto the surface of, of path and it rolls to the side. I personally don’t have to imagine this because, um, this basically happens all over and around my house. We have a pretty significant cross slope, which can be pretty inconvenient when you’re doing certain things. So things don’t have to be completely level.
That’s not what we’re suggesting. A little cross slope is fine and probably isn’t gonna impact your day-to-day life. But the steeper it gets, you can definitely run into some safety and accessibility issues. The specification for cross slope is one to fifty, so for every fifty inches of width, the surface should not drop more than one inch from side to side.
That’s really [00:18:00] gentle, like barely perceptible to most people. But here’s why it matters. A cross slope is tipping you to one side, and it requires your body to produce continuous corrections to keep your center of gravity over your base of support. So think shifting your weight every single second, every single step to make sure that you don’t fall over to one side.
Your ankle is loading differently on the low side than on the high side. Your hips are making micro adjustments so that they can stay level and squared toward where you’re going. Your torso is compensating. Your core muscles are working really hard to keep you from falling over.
And all of this happens probably below conscious awareness for a lot of us. And in most conditions, the corrections are fast, they’re automatic, they’re efficient. Maybe we don’t notice them. But if your balance system is already working harder at baseline, maybe because of a neurological condition, because of lower extremity weakness, maybe you’re recovering from [00:19:00] being sick or a surgery, or maybe you’re even just really tired, that continuous correction demand is fatiguing and can be really destabilizing.
And the destabilizing effect compounds over the length of the path. So the longer you have to walk, the harder your muscles are working to keep compensating, the more chances that a correction doesn’t quite work and you end up tripping or falling over.
Sarah: That’s a really good description, and there’s also a wheelchair-specific dynamic for this cross slope as well. So remember that manual wheelchair where somebody pushes with their hands? If that person is on a tilted surface pushing a manual wheelchair, that means that their chair wants to drift towards the lower side. The person propelling it has to work asymmetrically to counter that drift, so applying an unequal force from each hand on every push. That is super tiring over even a short distance. You get a little anxiety ’cause you feel like you’re gonna go off the path, and it makes the chair harder to [00:20:00] control. Imagine someone trying to do that who has experienced a stroke, and only one side of their body is working to propel the chair. It’s extremely difficult. Power wheelchair users face their own version of the same problem. The cross slope specification exists to keep pathways neutral, not pulling toward either side, so they have to navigate slightly above the curve of the sidewalk. Oftentimes, I’ve even seen my husband brace himself on one side of the chair so his body doesn’t fall the direction it shouldn’t. Because he doesn’t have a lot of trunk control, he has to do that, and he’s using his arms to keep him stable and upright.
Rebecca: That’s a really good example, and I think exemplifies the real-life impact of cross slope. As an aside here, I just wanna throw this out. If you’re thinking about where you live and realizing you have a cross slope in your pathways, consider that it was probably designed that way specifically for drainage purposes.
The person who [00:21:00] decided how that path would be graded was probably managing water and not thinking about the walking surface. The path that drains toward the street, for example, is doing what it was supposed to do. Nobody just really probably thought of it as an accessibility feature because nobody was thinking about both the drainage and the accessibility at the same time, which is what we’re hoping that we can start to shift people towards thinking in the future.
Sarah: Definitely. And remember for new construction, that cross slope can be corrected during the site grading for a single surface. But after that, it’s a reconstruction project and lots of extra work to fix. Plus, you wanna make sure that you are having that grading done correctly so you don’t have any water issues. So you may remember Walter from our last couple of episodes from parking surfaces and then pathway lighting. If you don’t remember Walter, he’s 72, and his wife is named Carol, and they have been living in their home for 25 years, and he [00:22:00] was diagnosed with early Parkinson’s disease a few years ago. When we talked about their front walk approach before, we focused on the surface, the flagstone set in pea gravel that Carol chose because she loved the look of it, what that material does to Walter’s gait.
We also spent some time on the lighting situation. What we hadn’t gotten into was the geometry. Their path is 34 inches at the narrowest point. That’s where a garden bed has grown in from one side over the years and was probably closer to 42 inches when it was first laid. The running slope is manageable, a little steep, but not dramatically so. The cross slope is what I keep coming back to. Their yard drains toward the street, and the path follows the grade. The whole length of the walk from where Walter goes out to the car to where he reaches the front door, the surface is tipping him ever so slightly to one side, and this may cause problems for him over time with his Parkinson’s. There’s no single moment on that path that would read as a problem to [00:23:00] anyone watching or even if you saw a picture of it. The tilt isn’t visible. Walter doesn’t stumble. He doesn’t grab anything. He walks it in the same way he’s walked it for years, adjusted and adapted, moving more carefully than he used to.
From the outside, it looks fine. But here’s what you can see with Walter, the pauses, the short ones, not dramatic. He stops three or four times on a path that’s maybe 25 feet long, and Carol has noticed it as well.
Rebecca: This is really common with Parkinson’s disease. Shortened stride, reduced foot clearance, meaning not lifting your foot enough to clear the surface that you’re walking on, postural instability, having a hard time standing up straight, and in particular, having difficulty dividing attention, so focusing on more than one thing at a time.
There’s a well-established body of clinical evidence that dual task conditions, so asking someone to walk while also managing a cognitive or physical demand, like answering a question or getting a [00:24:00] key out of a pocket, significantly increases fall risk in Parkinson’s disease. A pathway that requires active balance correction is a dual task environment.
So back to Walter. In this situation, he isn’t just navigating the tilted surface, he’s managing a walking pattern that already requires conscious attention while simultaneously correcting for the cross slope. The pauses Carol notices aren’t him hesitating, they’re him resetting. So this is a great example of how pathway design is important for anyone whose gait needs attention to maintain.
And this is actually a bigger group of people than you probably realize. Folks who have had a recent injury and are a bit unsteady on their feet, people with vertigo, people in high heels, the list goes on.
Sarah: Yeah, those high heels can get you in a lot of different situations for sure. I love that idea of the concept of the dual task conditions. It’s actually a newer concept to me, um, but it really makes sense. And I wanna put [00:25:00] this into a wider frame because what the path needs to be for Walter is what it needs to be for everyone. Forty-eight inches of clear walking surface, a running slope that doesn’t add the effort of every step, and a cross slope that doesn’t require constant correction for the full length of the walk. Those are the three specific measurable things, and right now, their path isn’t meeting any of them.
Rebecca: Unfortunately. So we’ve been on a bit of a journey with Walter and Carol, the lighting and now the geometry of the pathway. So let’s discuss what might be actionable for a household like theirs. As we do, we’ll discuss options in three different layers. The pathway conversation is kind of one of the more interesting ones here because the no-cost tier has a pretty useful starting point, which is actually just measuring what you have.
So most households have never measured their front pathway. They know roughly how long it is, and they know what it looks like, but they don’t know how wide it is at its narrowest point. They have no [00:26:00] idea the running slope or the cross slope. And getting that information costs nothing and is actually the prerequisite for any other decision that we could recommend.
So here’s what to do. Get a measuring tape and walk the path. Measure the width at several points and note the narrowest one. That’s the one that matters most. How close is that to four feet, to forty-eight inches? But before spending anything, cut back grasses and that mulch and that edging that’s run over and get a little reset for the edges. ‘Cause in a lot of cases, a path can actually be cleared to, like, forty-eight inches once the edges are reestablished.
Definitely progress with no material cost. For slope readings, smartphones with a level app can give you a good approximation. It’s not a surveyor’s instrument. It’s not gonna be perfect, but it’ll tell you what you’re dealing with. So you can hold the phone along the length of the path to get a reading on the running slope, and then you hold it across the width to check the cross slope.
So if you’re seeing [00:27:00] numbers that surprise you, that information is worth having before you do anything else. One thing I find useful for OT listeners in particular is treating the pathway assessment the way you’d treat an interior assessment. You put the same rigor into that as you put into evaluating a bathroom setup, getting specific measurements, documenting functional implications.
This can go into the entrance route. Noting the width, the running slope, the cross slope. These are numbers that you could write down and you could take into a conversation with a contractor or a landscaper or a family member who’s considering options. It’s sort of hard to act when the problem is vague, but when you have the specific numbers, it’s more actionable.
Sarah: Definitely. On the rerouting question, if the current pathway has geometry problems, but there’s an alternative route to a door, a side path, the driveway itself, a connection through the garage, it’s worth evaluating whether that, that other route is in better shape. Sometimes the most accessible entrance route already [00:28:00] exists, and it’s just not the most commonly path being used. So take that into account. If width is the primary issue and the path itself is structurally sound, the most practical mid-range option is widening it without replacing it. This means extending the walking surface along one or both sides, concrete poured alongside the existing path or pavers that are flush from the surface broadens the surface that’s already there. The word that matters here is flush. Any extension that’s higher or lower than the existing surface creates a transition, and transitions are their own accessibility problem. So flush means even. This is also the tier where edge contrast is worth considering as a deliberate design choice. A border material in contrasting color or texture along both sides of the pathway can be used, like brick alongside concrete, a darker aggregate alongside a lighter surface marks the edge visually and gives [00:29:00] people with low vision information about where the walking surface ends before they reach it.
When a pathway is being widened anyway, specifying contrasting border material at the same time adds very little to the project cost and extends the path for those who are going to be using it. for pathway widening projects vary considerably. Costs for pathway widening projects vary considerably by material, path length, and region. A longer or more complex path is more.
Rebecca: Now, if cross slope is the issue, the mid-rate range options are a bit more limited, but they’re not absent. In some cases, the cross slope is concentrated in that particular section, maybe a spot where a tree root is growing underneath, or a portion of the path that has just settled over time.
Removing and re- placing that section alone with a correct grade is more targeted than a full [00:30:00] reconstruction and can fix the problem in the worst area, even if the rest of the path is acceptable. For a path where the cross slope is consistent across the full length, it becomes more of a structural tier conversation.
The ramp conversation belongs in the mid-range tier for many households, though. When running slope can’t be reduced because the site has a real elevation gain between the parking area and the door, a properly configured ramp is the right answer, and it doesn’t have to look institutional it can look really nice.
A wood or composite ramp designed to meet the slope spec, one to twenty as the target, but one to twelve at a minimum, with flat landings at the top and bottom handrails on both sides. This can be integrated into an entry approach in a way that looks intentional and reads as part of the design. Budget ranges for a mid-range ramp installation is roughly between six hundred and twenty-five hundred dollars, depending on the rise, the length, the materials, and the labor.
But [00:31:00] we’ll go into ramp design in detail in the next episode. So listeners, if you’re concerned about what bringing a path to forty-eight inches does to the look of your front entry, the style guide has some examples of materials you can use, so it doesn’t have to look any different than what you would choose anyway.
Sarah: There are some really great ideas of how you can kind of hide a pathway or a ramp if you need to. The full solution for pathway that doesn’t meet the width and slope specifications is reconstruction, removing the existing surface, regrading, and installing a new surface built to specs. This is a landscaper or hardscaper conversation, and it typically involves looking at the pathway, the surrounding grading, and the site’s drainage management as a connected system. Budget range for a full front pathway reconstruction varies significantly based on site conditions, material choice, and path length.
Rebecca: Yeah, so these are wide ranges and local market conditions can vary a lot. So for the builders and designers in this conversation on a freshly [00:32:00] graded site, meeting these numbers isn’t really additional work, it’s just the work done with these numbers in mind. On an established site with decades of settled drainage patterns, meeting them is a reconstruction project with a significant price tag.
That’s a design stage argument for pathway geometry, and it’s as direct as it gets.
Sarah: Here’s the exercise. Go outside this week and walk your front path slowly, not just to get anywhere quickly, just to pay attention.
Notice where there’s a lean, a sense of one side of the surface slightly lower than another, that you’re making a small, continuous effort to stay centered. Most people feel it immediately once they’re looking for it. They’ve just never looked for it before. That lean is your pathway asking something of you.
Not a design failure, exactly. It’s a design gap. Nobody asked the right question at the right time.
Rebecca: And just one more note for our OT listeners, add the pathway to your assessment routine if it isn’t part of it already. The entrance route evaluation often starts at the [00:33:00] front door and works inward, and the path from the car gets glanced over rather than measured. But for a client like Walter or anyone whose gait requires active attention to maintain, the path is the first demand every time you come home.
So it’s worth five minutes and a measuring tape to know what you’re actually dealing with. So we’re gonna stay outside for one more episode before we enter the house. our next episode Is about steps, specifically about what it means not to have them. The full entrance route conversation, no steps from parking to the door, what that takes to design, what it costs to retrofit, and what it means for people who need it, that’s next time.
Sarah: 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 universaldesign.org.
We cover housing topics like advocacy, collaboration, home modification, [00:34:00] 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.
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