Tag: accessibility

After getting over the pathway to the back deck that I wrote about previously, the next hurdle for my dad to get into the house was the step into the sliding door. At his former home near Tulsa, he had a couple steps both inside and outside that he was able to navigate but this one was slightly higher and also had the sliding door track on the bottom that would likely cause him trouble. The bumpy edges and odd angles can mess with his head as he negotiates the floor, and since balance is such a concern, I wanted to make sure stepping into the house was easy.

So I built a quick middle step that is big enough for his walker so he can get into the house in two stages. Now he can enter and exit the back relatively easily (of course with me still standing near to help offer support as needed). It’s sturdy but I not connected to the deck so I can move as needed when winter comes and regular snow shoveling enters the schedule.

The last big need was a way to get him into the shower. This house has a small standing shower in the bathroom near his room, but the shower floor is raised above the floor about 5 inches, and the shower door track is about 7 inches tall. I was hoping a single step on the outside with a sturdy handle in the shower would allow him to feel confident enough to get his feet into the stall, but it wasn’t enough. I decided to build something that made things easier for him to ease his way in. It’s three steps and has a galvanized pipe handle. It’s working well and he feels good using it but it’s a bit hefty and I can tell that I’ll be working on a V2 model eventually based on how he uses this one.

Before deciding to move my dad here in September, we had a lot to think about. We started considering the move around March, when he had to go to a hospital for dehydration and lost a lot of strength. His care needs increased and he needed to have more home health coverage at my aunt’s house to help him through each week. So from March until around July we researched and discussed, and I waffled constantly not sure which way to go.

One key part of the discussion was whether or not he could even physically be comfortable in our place. We rent a home in Hanover due to the small town being extremely high priced with very low inventory, plus my wife still working toward tenure, which keeps us in a temporary mode.

The only way in for him is through the back sliding door (he uses a walker and moves slowly due to high risk of falling). The other ways into the house have big steps and simply not an option.

So the first thing I needed to to do once we committed to this move was to dig up a rocky path on the side of the house to the back deck and make it smooth. You can see the before/after in the photo, but since this is a rental I did it relatively quick and cheap. I think it came out nice though and seems to be holding up ok. Still have winter to test it, but so far it’s better than the rocks.