The Matrix System can provide the following for use by the elderly or
disabled:
- Ramps
- Doors
- Cabinets
- Landings
- Latches and Locks
- Toilets
- Wheelchair accessible showers/bathrooms
- Accessibility
During the past decade, building codes based on the American National
Standards Institute's Specifications for Making Buildings and Facilities
Accessible to and Useable by Physically Handicapped People have made
public buildings accessible to our entire population. These building
codes, which are generally applicable only to stores, banks, and other
public buildings, have generated new ideas for achieving accessibility
in private homes. Many of these ideas are described and illustrated
below.
Accessible Routes
A continuous corridor that's 3' wide, 8' high, and free of hazards
and abrupt changes in level should connect all important areas of
your home. This pathway should lead from the point where you enter
the property, through the entrance to all important rooms. If such
an "accessible
route" is available, anyone, regardless of physical limitations,
will be able to move easily around your home. If you rent your home,
check with your landlord before you undertake any modifications.
Accessible Appliances
You should try to strike a balance between safety and useability
in your home, especially if very old and frail persons or very young
children are present. For example, you may not want a stove with front
controls if your grandchildren visit frequently. However, many barrier-free
design specialists recommend front controls so persons in wheelchairs
won't have to reach across heated burners.
Doors
The freedom to move easily around our homes is something most of
us take for granted. But it's a freedom that's cherished by those with
limited mobility and strength. Many of our homes were designed with
strong young families in mind. However, when older persons occupy these
houses, they may not be able to open some windows, climb steps, or
go through doors, especially if they have limited strength or hand
dexterity, or use a wheelchair or other mobility device.
Deciding which doors to make accessible isn't difficult when you
consider the main activities you enjoy. In your home, you should have
easy access through at least one entry door (preferably two for fire
evacuation reasons) and all doors along the accessible route between
your bedroom and the kitchen, dining, bathroom, living or family room,
and possibly the laundry room. Some doors may not need to be accessible,
especially if they lead to seldom-used areas or rooms such as basements,
shallow closets, or guest bedrooms.
There are four major reasons why people have difficulty using doors:
Width
Although the standard doorway width is 32",
some doorways may be narrower, and unable to accommodate wheelchairs
or other mobility assisting devices.
Landing
The floor space on either side of the door is too small to allow
a person who uses a wheelchair or other mobility assisting device to
approach and open the door.
Hardware
The latch or lock is located where it's hard to reach and operate,
or more commonly, the type of latch, lock, or handle is difficult to
operate by someone who has limited hand dexterity.
Weight
The door is too heavy or the automatic door closer or spring pressure
is too strong to open easily. Each of these conditions has several
solutions:
Width Problems
A standard wheelchair is 24-27" wide. When you add 1 1/2" on
both sides of the chair to allow for finger and knuckle clearance, plus
an inch or two to allow for inaccurate maneuvering and the usual oblique
approach to doors, the clear opening width totals 32". Therefore,
this standard is used in most building codes.
Remove Doors
If you remove existing doors you can provide
an additional 1 1/2-2" of
clear door opening. You may want to simply remove the pins from the
hinges and remove the door in some doorways. In other locations, where
aesthetics are a consideration, you can remove the hinges, door stops,
and other hardware, fill the resulting holes with wood putty or spackle,
and repaint or refinish the door frame. Before you remove hinges altogether,
make sure you'll never want to reinstall the door in the doorway. Reinstallation
may be fairly difficult once your door frames have been modified.
Landings
Small landings on either side of doors can create problems if you
or others in your home use mobility devices. It is difficult to pull
a swinging door open if you, your wheelchair, or another mobility device
already occupy the landing area over which the door must swing.
Usually 18-24" is needed beyond the
strike jamb on the pull side of the door to allow enough room for
a wheelchair user to easily open the door.
Unfortunately, to enlarge a landing you may have to relocate walls
or partitions. This may be a difficult task, especially in older homes
where walls or partitions bear the weight of the house or where electrical
or plumbing lines are located. Two alternatives are available. You
can either remove the door from the doorway and eliminate the need
to open or close it, or you can install an automatic door opener. Either
option will eliminate the need for a wide door landing.
Hardware
Hardware choices include latches, locks, thresholds, kickplates,
vision panels, and door openers. Depending on your needs, all or some
of these options may be appropriate in your home.
Latches
Latches are a means of keeping doors closed.
If a latch isn't necessary (i.e. spring loaded, or well-balanced
doors), you may prefer to deactivate it. Anyone can push open a door,
or pull it shut if there is no excessive weight involved and the
hardware for pulling the door is easy to grasp. When latches are
required, you may want to install a device that requires no fine
gripping or strong twisting ability. Lever hardware is ideal, but
high quality is usually available only in "mortised" latches.
If your home isn't newly built, you'll probably be able to replace
the existing knob hardware on your mortised lock sets with levers.
Most residential construction uses cylindrical lock sets and latches
which are difficult to replace with levers. But several devices have
been introduced recently for adding a lever arm to existing cylindrical
latch sets.
Locks
The security you desire for your home may be difficult to achieve
if you have hand dexterity impairments. Most locks require fine dexterity
and finger strength. Using the closed fist rule, you can easily determine
whether your locks are useable by older persons in your household who
have arthritis. Lever hardware is preferable to any kind of small twist
knob. Push buttons may be satisfactory if they don't require fine dexterity
to release the lock. A push button lock in a cylindrical lever latch
is perfect from an operational point of view, but it doesn't generally
provide the security of a dead bolt mechanism.
Slide bolts, however, are fairly easy for anyone to operate and provide
nearly the same security as dead bolts.
A lever arm may be an acceptable way to adapt your door locks. Magnetic
card readers, remote control locks, and combination locks which are
push-button activated work well for many people.
Thresholds
Abrupt changes in levels greater than 1/2" can
create tripping hazards for people with walking problems and barriers
for people who use wheelchairs. Thresholds should be ramped or removed
so they do not create any type of barrier.
To remove a threshold, you must either cut or pry up and patch the
flooring at wooden thresholds, or replace metal or masonry thresholds
with others that have a lower profile. In some cases, you may be able
to install a beveled ramp that abuts the edge of the threshold and
eliminates the wheeling and tripping barrier.
Alternatively, you can fill the area with mortar or plastic material
that will level the approach to the threshold. You should try to eliminate
the threshold completely, however, since even a gradual ramp may create
problems for some residents or visitors in your home. Analyze the abilities
of the members of your household to determine what's best for you and
those who live with you.
Kickplates
Where a doorway is especially narrow or someone
habitually pushes the door open with wheelchair foot rests, excessive
wear can occur. Oversized kickplates can reduce this wear. Kickplates
should extend from the floor surface up to a height of at least 10" and preferably 16".
You can fasten plastic laminate, metal, and even hardwood kickplates
to the door to provide protection. Kickplates should be as thin as
possible so they won't reduce the clear door width opening.
Vision panels
For security reasons, you may want to provide
oneway vision panels and/or peepholes on entrance doors. This will
allow you to visually survey any visitor before you open the doorway
and expose yourself to risk. For people in wheelchairs, peepholes
should be located approximately 36-45" above
the floor.
Automatic operators
If one or more of your doors are difficult to open because they are
excessively heavy or the landings are small, you may want to install
automatic door openers.
Electro-mechanical openers that plug into an electrical outlet and
are operated from a remote button or sensor are effective for many
installations.
Door Types
If you plan to modify or replace doors for better accessibility,
remember that several types of doors may be suitable. Swinging doors
are the most common, but they require landings on both sides.
Pocket doors are becoming more and more fashionable. Where there
is only an occasional need for privacy they're especially effective.
When they aren't being used, they're out of the way and out of sight
(hidden in a wall).
Pocket doors can also be inexpensively mounted on the surface of
an existing wall, but are less aesthetically pleasing than hidden doors.
