Accessibility Doesn't Come at The Price of Attractiveness

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How much difference does a bathroom that works for you make in the quality of your life? We took a retrospective look at  some clients who we helped improve the safety of the bathroom while modernizing it and helping her achieve her vision of beauty. She was happy with the way her new bathroom allowed her husband to be more independent and able to shower mostly by himself now in security.  She’s been able to truly relax, and not be afraid that her husband would fall. He enjoys the privacy.

As we improved the accessibility of the bathroom, we kept budget and aesthetics in mind as well. Rather than widening the door and moving walls, we were able to use much more economical swing-clear hinges to provide the extra 1 and a half of door way width we needed. Our grab bar placement was designed to allow him to move through the bathroom and to help him up off the toilet, but matches the theme of the room without looking out of place or disruptive.

In the shower, we were able to use a pre-blocked Best Bath shower to place grab bars where he needed them, and to ensure he could place the showerhead wherever he wanted it most. Best Bath showers are beautiful, durable, and low maintenance, but their functionality and practicality, as well as their ability to be changed in the future as needed, is something else that we love about them. Here, we made use of their adaptability with a temporary threshold.  It’s secured and caulked down now, but if they ever need a roll-in shower, it’s a simple matter to remove it and for a simple, elegant conversion to a roll-in shower. You can think about Best Bath System’s life time shower concept as two showers for the price of one.

So, share the news and share the video. Accessibility doesn’t come at the price of attractiveness. It’s possible to have a bathroom that is a pleasure to be in for both its safety and its beauty.

Magic Wand of Accessibility

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Sorry Virginia, there is no magic access wand.

Sometimes we can tell that we are disappointing the person standing in front of us at a health fair or talking to us on the phone. We are simply too responsible to attempt to solve their home accessibility answer without more information and usually without going to their home. Sometimes they’ve given long explanations of what is going on and what isn’t working, and we have listened. But even when they can accurately describe their abilities and what their home looks like, they are only able to give us their perspective of those things. 

While our client’s perspective is critical and plays a huge role in the recommendations we make, they deny themselves the benefit of our objectivity and experience over the years if they ask us to rely solely on their impressions. 

Here are a few reasons why a responsible access consultant won’t just attempt to solve problems for people without a good individual and on-site review:

1. There are accessibility guidelines that some people think can be used like a cookbook for access such as the Americans with Disability Accessibility Act Guidelines, but these are not designed to meet the personal need of every individual and they aren’t required in private residences unless they’ve been incorporated into a building code.

2. Every person is different from others and should be treated individually. Even two people with the same medical condition, same age, same size, and same sex, will have different goals, preferences and abilities.

3. Houses are very different from each other.
In short, there really is no notebook or cookbook that says what is exactly right for every person and we know there is really no such thing as accessibility magic wands so we have to rely on good old evaluation, knowledge about a multitude of options, and the experience to match those options with the individual’s needs. We feel like the best way to solve an access issue is to listen to a person to understand their goals and observe them in the environment they want to change. So if you give us a call with an access question, we really don’t want to disappoint you. Expect a thorough residential access answer to include a visit to you in your residence. 

If you want an objective, professional solution to your residential access problem, call us and set an appointment with one of our designers. We provide in-home assessments with no travel fee in the Greater Omaha, Nebraska area. All other areas in Nebraska and Iowa are possible with a travel fee. We will give you a firm estimate of your costs for consultation when you call to make an appointment.

"I’d recommend them for about anything."

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We first met the Xs (obviously not their name) when Mr. X was in rehab and couldn’t return home as Mrs. X had no way to get him and his wheelchair into the house. They’d called someone about a ramp, but there was no room for it. It would have taken all the space in the garage and then some. They called us, and we took a look at the situation. We ended up suggesting a vertical platform lift. It would take less effort for both of them to use, it fit better in the garage, and it would still be helpful if he was able to regain the ability to use a walker or cane. We also provided Mrs. X with some tips for a friend of theirs who was widening their doors. The special hinges saved them several hundred dollars a door. Better yet, Mr. X was able to return home!

After living with the wheelchair for about a year, they called us to help figure out whether they should make modifications to their current house, try to find one that was more accessible already, or if they should start building from the ground up. The process for this consultation is to listen carefully not only to what people can do in order to determine what environmental modifications will increase independence and safety, but also to how they want to live and what is important to them. The bathrooms, and Mr. X’s need for Mrs. X’s help to transfer had been the worst trouble.  The stress was starting to take a toll. Despite that, they didn’t want to leave this house behind. They loved the neighborhood, their yard, and had invested much time in making their house their home. With that in mind, we recommended changing the house for accessibility. They were pleased to have options available that would make living easier in the home they loved. We worked together designing exactly how we’d increase his independence around the home.

Since the entrance to the home had already been addressed right after his stay in Rehab, the major changes were modifying the bathroom and providing an independent transfer method. We found a solution which solved both problems in combination. We installed a SureHands ceiling track with a body support. Mr. X can transfer independently, and can move between the bathroom and the bedroom at will. Furthermore, we didn’t have to rob any other rooms or closets for space which, was important for Mrs. X.

 We used a Best Bath shower with a threshold in the bathroom to obtain maximum useable space and water control within the existing shower pocket and bathroom. We ordered a custom width and depth seat and placed grab bars strategically to assist with sitting balance when Mr. X uses the ceiling lift to enter the shower. We replaced the traditional sink with a roll under sink after calculating that Mr. X  would have just enough room to swing his legs under it once the door was widened. The toilet is accessed by a rolling shower commode chair, a solution customized for Mr. X . If a person needed access to the toilet on a more regular basis, we could have used a track splitter in the bathroom to help him transfer there. He didn’t feel he needed it, however, and picked an option that was simpler and more economical to him.

Once the lift system and the bathroom was remodeled, there were just a few smaller jobs we did which at first seem minor, but often small things have a big impact.   Mr.  X has two dogs, which he loves dearly. However, dogs being dogs, they love to go outside and come back in frequently. Having to get the door constantly for those two was a major physical effort. So, he planned an elegant little solution to that problem: We installed a doggie door to the fenced yard which gives them boosted accessibility too!  If you watch the video closely you can see one of them coming and going through the door since we weren’t including it in the conversation.  The second job was a specialized doorbell.  It has a built in camera, speaker, and microphone that allow Mr. X to see who’s at the door and let them know he’s on the way without having to yell across the house.

So, at the end of over a year and a half on and off of working with us, their house has undergone both  major and minor changes and transformed from a place filled with barriers to a place that is easy for them to live in.

Bigger’s Not Always Better When It Comes to Toilets

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Having trouble getting up off the toilet or easing gently onto it is no laughing matter!  A toilet that is high enough for you to sit with your hips just a little higher than your knees usually takes less physical effort to sit on if you have  weakness in your legs or pain in the joints of your back or legs.

The toilet riser increases height
economically, but needs to be cleaned.

There are a lot of ways to get a toilet seat higher.  Many folks will add a riser to the top of the toilet either replacing the toilet seat or lifting the toilet seat.  These risers work, but they don’t feel the same as a regular toilet seat and they require cleaning.

Another way to get a taller toilet is to lift the whole toilet with a product like a toilevator.  This can give almost any toilet a 3.5” boost and it doesn’t add an extra toilet cleaning chore.

It is also fairly inexpensive now to simply replace a short toilet with an ADA compliant height toilet.  Some manufacturers have started calling this “comfort height” and it is truly more comfortable for most Adults who are over 5’ tall to get up and down from 17” high toilets.  If you check out the height of most of the chairs in your home, you’ll notice that most of them are around 17” high or even higher than that.  No wonder a standard 15” high toilet seems short!

The toilevator lifts the entire toilet. 
Here a round bowl toilet is used
because the space in front of the toilet is limited.

One thing people don’t realize is that they don’t necessarily need to purchase an elongated bowl when they replace a short toilet with a taller one.  There is nothing wrong with an elongated bowl.  Frankly, there are a lot of great reasons to go with an elongated bowl if you have the room.  For instance, people with larger buttocks or extremely tall people will feel more comfortable and find an elongated bowl more functional.

The problem with elongated bowls usually pops ups in two situations.  When the toilet is between the door and other fixtures in the room, an elongated bowl will take up an additional 1 ½” of the path.  That may not seem like much but if you have a 5’ wide room and the toilet takes up 30” of it, you only have 30” left for a walker or wheelchair.  Other things in the room like vents and doors can take up some of those precious inches too.   If you have a bathroom where the door has just enough room to swing by the standard toilet, switching over to an elongated toilet may actually block the door.  Whoops!

There is room to spare in front
of this elongated bowl toilet.

So by all means raise the height of your toilet.  You will love it as long as you can keep your feet on the ground.  Just make sure you look at all your options so you don’t create other problems.

I Want to Transfer Anywhere - Absolutely Anywhere!

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Imagine that you aren’t able to get up out of that chair that you are sitting in right now. How long could you stand it? Would you be happy to even get a little help after an hour or two, even if it was only enough to move you into one other spot?  What if you could move even more?

The thing that I like most about a ceiling or wall based motorized transfer system is the freedom it can provide to a person with a disability and their caregivers. A reliable system can free a person from fear of being dropped or fear of injuring a caregiver and can provide the freedom to move from seat to seat as many times a day as they want or need to. Even a basic straight piece of track over a bed and the space beside it can be life changing for a person who could not move from bed or wheelchair without it.

That said, imagine the freedom if a person could move anywhere they want to within a room. A traverse Track System accomplishes that. The traverse track system consists of two fixed ceiling or wall mounted parallel rails and one traverse rail that moves back and forth of the parallel rails.  The manual version shown in our video can be moved almost effortlessly by a caregiver. SureHands Lift and Care Systems as usual has many options to allow us to match a person’s abilities and environment. There is an electric version that can be operated independently by a person sitting in the body support or sling. We can also connect a traverse rail to another rail and a person can move outside of the room. While a traverse track system may not be able to move a person anywhere in the physical environment, such as down their outside ramp, all over the yard, or up and down the stairs, it can come very close to moving a person anywhere inside they want to go within their home.

If you’d like to learn more about the possibility of transferring anywhere, give us a call or visit the SureHands Lift and Care Systems web site http://www.surehands.com.  Imagine the freedom!

Power Toilet Aid Elevates Toilet Seats

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Elevate your bathroom experience

There are few worse places to get stuck than on the toilet.   Being able to go to the bathroom on your own is one of the first real forms of independence people develop, and being denied that ability due to injury, disability, or age can be frustrating and heartbreaking.  And not all of us have people who can come to the rescue at a moment’s notice!   Being unable to stand up and move from the toilet while alone at home can be just as dangerous (or lead to) a fall.

Fortunately there are a variety of solutions that can help people recover bathroom independence.

Sometimes, raising the toilet seat and adding grab bars is enough to give people the boost they need to get back on their feet.  Sometimes people need more help than that!  The Stand Aid power toilet may be the answer.  The Stand Aid power toilet is meant for situations where the person in question needs to be nearly standing again to get on and off the toilet.   It can lift 13” vertically to help someone back to their feet, but slowly lowers them to toilet level for both safety and cleanliness.

If you or someone you know is having trouble on the toilet, don’t be afraid to get help.  There are so many solutions that will take your bathroom experience back to the level it should be.  Share the news and share the video.

Tub Cut at Harrison Heights Senior Village

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At first, you might assume that cutting an 18” wide opening in the side of a bathtub would ruin it, but think again.  If the tub is unusable as a tub or shower because a person feels unsafe stepping over the side, or doesn’t use it for soaking because they can’t get up if they sit on the floor of the tub, what good is it?  It is a big useless waste of space!  Why not cut the side out of it, especially if you know what you are doing and you install a Tubcut™ which is strong, economical, and reversible?

This month, we visited our friend Pam Jackson, the property Manager at Harrison Heights Senior Village (402) 933-8080 to talk about her with the Tubcut™  we did for some of the people who live there. We had three major questions for her to determine if the process had been successful

1) Did the Tubcut™  improve the safety and independence of the person who had to use it?

2) Was the Tubcut™ good for helping her get the apartment filled, and for the community?

3) If the opportunity arose, would she arrange a Tubcut™ for another person who needed or wanted one?

The answers to all three questions were resoundingly positive. “[The Resident] doesn’t have to worry about falling or anything like that when he gets into the tub, but the option is also open where we have the piece and can put it back if another resident wants the full tub…Our whole office likes it.”

We are always thrilled to help out our friends at Harrison Heights, and help keep their residents safe and independent. If you know people who could use a little extra security getting in and out of the tub, but want to be able to convert it back to a regular tub if need be, share the news, and share the video. The Tubcut™ is the economical solution they need.