How to Adapt a Home for People with Disabilities

Home adaptation for people with disabilities entails making design and structural changes, such as installing roll-in showers and lowering kitchen countertops to ensure that the home becomes a comfortable space to live in. It also helps minimize injuries and increases confidence and independence in accessing various areas in the house.

Step-by-Step Guide to Help You Adapt Your Home

Here are the steps you need to follow when adapting a home:

1. Assess the individual’s needs: Conduct a comprehensive evaluation of your needs, such as mobility and sensory and cognitive challenges, and map out your daily routines to spot the areas that need modifications.
2. Work with an Occupational Therapist (OT): They’ll help identify specific barriers in your home in GTA and suggest the adaptations needed to improve your home’s accessibility.
3. Consider getting specialized equipment: Health professionals, such as physiotherapists, can offer advice on the best-specialized equipment to get based on your needs and home adaptation project.
4. Budget and plan for your home adaptation: This involves determining the scope of your project, researching how much it will cost to get the materials for modification and a contractor to handle the job and allocating funds needed for necessary adaptations.
5. Ensure compliance with local regulations for structural alterations: Submit architectural plans to the local authorities and obtain the necessary permits needed for structural modifications.
6. Seek funding options: Explore financial assistance programs like the Ontario Renovates Program or the Disability Tax Credit to offset home modification costs.
7. Hire professionals like CSG Renovation to do the modifications: Engage specialists who understand building codes in Toronto and accessibility standards. They will professionally carry out the tasks involved in modifying your home, such as adding voice-activated lights and automated blinds.

Home Adaptation Ideas for Disability and Restricted Movement

Whole House Adaptations

Whole-house adaptations ensure that every corner or space in your home is universally accessible. They involve levelling flooring, adding proper lighting, clearing doorways, replacing carpeted floors with hard surfaces for wheelchair mobility, and installing motion sensor lighting in hallways to minimize the risk of falling.

Bathroom Adaptations

Bathrooms are normally high-risk areas for falls and slips, so they require attention to safety and ease of use. As a renovation company in Toronto, we recommend adding grab bars around the toilet and shower, using anti-scald faucets that help control temperature, installing roll-in showers with handheld showerheads, and laying anti-slip mats to prevent slipping.

Kitchen Adaptations

To make the kitchen safe and functional, you’ll need to consider adding pull-out taps that can be easily directed where required when washing things in the kitchen without having to move your body. Adding a touch-sensitive operation would also be ideal if you struggle to turn the tap handle.

Installing touch-control induction cooktops will help reduce burn risk while side-opening trays will make cooking accessible for wheelchair users. You can also add shallow basin sinks to make grasping cutlery and dishes at the bottom of the basin easier.

Bedroom Adaptations

The use of motorized beds that can adjust to a comfortable height and adding touch lights close to the bed for easier nighttime will create a restful and accessible environment in your bedroom. If you use a wheelchair, you have to ensure that the height of your bed matches the height of your wheelchair seat for easy transfer.

Stairs Adaptations

Replacing stairs with ramps where possible (while adhering to a 1:12 slope ratio for wheelchairs) will make it possible for wheelchair users to navigate different floors and entryways of the house independently without excessive physical strain or risk of tipping over.

Living Room Adaptations

The purpose of a living room adaptation is to enhance the social space for inclusivity. The ideal way to do this is by considering flexible furniture arrangements and low thresholds. For example, you can use height-adjustable tables to accommodate both wheelchair and walker users.

You can also replace rugs with non-slip mats to reduce tripping hazards or place sockets, lights and control switches at reachable heights and hide any cords or wires behind your furniture to avoid tripping over them.

The Outdoor Adaptation

It’s a way of making outdoor areas and entrances more accessible. Installing a ramp constructed with tethered concrete or with a non-slip surface at the entrance will reduce the risk of slipping, mostly in icy or wet conditions.

Using raised garden beds (elevated to 30 inches) with ample clearance underneath will allow individuals with limited bending ability or wheelchair users to engage in gardening activities without strain.

Grants and Funding for Disability Adaptations in Toronto

Grants for disability adaptations are financial awards provided by non-profit organisations or government agencies to support individuals with disabilities in terms of accessibility and living expenses. They include:

Ontario Renovates Programs

This is an Ontario provincial initiative that offers individuals in Toronto with moderate-income households, including those living with disabilities, forgivable loans of up to $25,000. The loans are issued to assist with major accessibility modifications and home renovations.

Examples of home modifications covered by this program include safety, energy efficiency, and accessibility. The loan is usually designed as a zero-interest lien against your home or mortgage, with 10% forgiven each year for a decade, eliminating the obligation for repayment.

Home & Vehicle Modification Program Organized by the March of Dimes Canada

The HVMP is a program funded by the Government of Ontario to offer grants or financial aid of as much as $15,000 to individuals with disabilities to pay for modifications such as stairlifts or retrofits to their homes and vehicles.

Your eligibility for the HVMP grants is normally determined by a Service Coordinator from the Ministry of Community and Social Services, and therefore, you must ensure that you are someone living with a disability that affects your day-to-day functions in order to qualify.

Easter Seals Financial Assistance

If you or your child have a physical disability, you can seek financial help from the Easter Seals Financial Assistance program, as it provides grants for essential equipment that is needed for enhanced accessibility and mobility even around the house.

For a child to be eligible for this program, they must have a disability that restricts them from being independently mobile, be under 19 years old, be a legal resident in Ontario and be registered with Easter Seals Ontario.

Home Accessibility Tax Credit

HATC is a federal non-refundable tax credit for home renovations that improve the accessibility of the home for the elderly and people with disabilities. It provides up to around $10,000 in tax-deductible expenses for qualifying renovations, such as lowering countertops on a dwelling that is eligible, like a home.

To qualify for HATC, you must be over 65 years of age at the end of the tax year or be eligible to claim the DTC ( Disability Tax Credit).

Assistive Devices Program

The ADP is a government program that subsidizes assistive devices for individuals with long-term physical disabilities, providing grants to pay for specialized or customized equipment and supplies such as mobility and visual aids that one may need.

You must be an Ontario resident living with a disability who needs customized equipment for a minimum of 6 months and must also possess a valid Ontario Health Card.

Low-Cost and Free Home Modifications

• Install portable or temporary ramps: Ramps that are temporary with non-slip surfaces prevent accidents and allow easy access to entryways. For example, instead of permanently modifying your front door, which may be expensive, you can get lightweight aluminium portable ramps that cost as little as $100 and place them over the staircases or thresholds leading to your home.
• Arrange furniture for better mobility around the house: This is a no-cost upgrade that will help improve navigation in the house for people with disabilities. Position the furniture, such as moving a bully armchair to a corner to create obstacle-free and open pathways in the living room.
• Use battery-operated motion sensor lights: Install battery-powered motion-activated lighting in bathrooms, hallways, or near staircases to improve visibility and safety at night, especially if you have limited vision.
• Install lever handles in place of door knobs: Lever handles are easier to install and operate, primarily for people with dexterity or limited hand strength, compared to traditional door knobs, which can be difficult to grip and turn.
• Use temporary suction cup grab bars: The suction cup grab bars offer stability, are affordable (costing around $15-$25), require no remodelling and eliminate the need for drilling or permanent installation, which may cost more. We advise you to regularly check and test the suction strength and stability for safety reasons.

Final Words

Adapting a home for individuals with disabilities ensures safety, comfort, and independence by addressing mobility, sensory, and cognitive challenges.

By assessing needs, involving experts, and planning within a budget, homeowners can create accessible spaces using practical modifications like ramps, roll-in showers, and touch-sensitive appliances.

With options for financial assistance, such as grants and tax credits, these adaptations become more attainable.

At CSG Renovation, we specialize in house remodelling, tailored modifications and home adaptations such as widening doorways and installing ramps, but we don’t provide or supply equipment such as assistive devices or wheelchairs to people living with disabilities.