Finding a place to live for a young man who uses a wheelchair
When I began in real estate in 1991, I specialized in adaptive housing. That’s the art and science of figuring out where someone with special needs can live comfortably. As a buyer’s broker, I began in this profession actively trying to work with people who used wheelchairs, were deaf or blind. Some of that early advertising catches up to me, once in a while.
Last week, I got a call from a broker who needed help with finding a home for a family friend. The home must be wheelchair accessible for their son. After giving her the names of several great organizations, I headed off to my other appointments. Five hours later, I called back to ask about whether she needed other resources. She told me that she couldn’t find the places I mentioned.
So maybe they aren’t that easy to find, here are the ones you should start with:
Boston Center for Independent Living
Other local centers for independent living
General information about service and resources
Finding an accessible apartment
In a nutshell: to make a home wheelchair accessible, the most expensive things are the entry method, the bathroom, and kitchen. If you find a place with a first floor bedroom and bathroom, and that bathroom has a closet next to the wall that has no plumbing, and outside is fairly level to the front door, you may have something worth adapting.
If this makes it easier for one person to find a comfortable home, I did my job today.
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I have to force myself not to stand up and applaud my computer screen. Great work, Rona.
I come over to the United States from Ireland and found it nearly impossible to find a Universal design home here in Massachusetts, so I designed my own, with the help of my builder, The last four years have been really great for my family with our open plan home, but now my job is moving me to New Jersey and I will have to start again, but I have a really good eye for old home that can be converted to Universal design. It’s the only way to go for families and I will miss living in MA.
If there is one thing I could say to all developers, builders, and remodelers out there -- WIDEN THE DANG BATHROOM DOORS!
There's absolutely no logical reason to make them the standard narrow 26-28 inches. There are many very good reasons to make them the standard door width of 36 inches, the greatest of which is wheelchair accessibility. Other reasons include not having to turn sideways to enter/exit with a laundry basket, wide enough for a walker, easier to navigate for our increasingly obese nation, etc., etc., etc.!
Great post!!!!
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