If you have recently decided to start living with a loved one who has an injury that affects their mobility, or your loved one has been through an injury, accident, or surgery, you can be a lot of help to them. In making aspects of their life more accessible, you can begin preparing and ensure that they don’t face as many barriers and are able to maintain their quality of living much more easily. Here are a few ways to do it.
Managing Their Transportation Needs
Mobility challenges can make getting around a little trickier, especially when you’re travelling longer distances. Managing travel with accessibility in mind might include options like accessible vehicles, adapting your existing cars, or arranging regular rides with local services dedicated to helping people get around. If you’re looking at any public travel options, make sure that they have available adaptations such as ramps and priority seating. When you’re in a new area, try to plan routes with minimal stairs and even surfaces to avoid delays along the way, too.
Accommodating Your Entryways
Before you worry about what’s inside the home, you need to make sure that your loved one can easily get inside it first. There are a lot of options to make entryways more accessible, including ramps, handrails, and non-slip surfaces for the steps and inside the threshold. You may also need to look at the possibility of widening doorways for anyone using a wheelchair or walker. Accessing the second floor of the home might be worth thinking about, as well, as options like stair lifts may be able to help a loved one access the entirety of the interior.
The Bathroom Is Essential
There is perhaps no room in the home where accessibility, safety, and comfort are more important than the bathroom. Not only because you want your loved one to be able to take care of their needs as easily as possible, but also because these wet rooms are high-risk areas for those with mobility impairments. Level access wet room design can be crucial, allowing your loved one to access the entirety of the room with more ease. Grab rails, anti-slip flooring, and fold-down seats in the bathing or shower areas can also make it much more convenient.
Don’t Forget The Kitchen
Even if you might be happy to do the meal prep and make cups of tea for your loved one, they may want to be more independent in the kitchen, as well. To that end, designing a kitchen that provides plenty of clearance with minimal obstacles is recommended, especially if they need space for turning their mobility aids. Installing countertops with adjustable heights and pull-out surfaces can create easy prep areas, while side-opening appliances and storage can make them much easier to access. Single lever or sensor faucets can make them more convenient, too.
It’s important to include your loved one in the conversation, even if you want to take on the hassle of making the accommodations yourself. They know their needs better than anyone, after all.
Last updated on November 6th, 2025 at 02:12 pm
