Sac Dep Spa #85 | Bonus: Accessible Homes

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Accessible Homes is a unique offering in the building market, specifically focussed on providing designed homes to allow improved quality of life for our customers who are reliant on wheelchair access and require mobility assistance.

A lot of thought clearly went into this, but it’s also pretty clear that there wasn’t a wheelchair user on the design team. There are so many small things that people who live life stood up wouldn’t have realised were problems! Obvious things like the floor being smooth throughout the entire house are great and should be standard, and anyone who’s ever seen a wheelchair user try to get over a doorstep could see that. But that oven is all wrong – people in wheelchairs can’t lean down far enough to open and close that door. I was vaguely hoping for an oven with a horizontally opening door, but even then it’s too low for taking things in and out to be any kind of easy or safe. And while the ironing board is a nice feature, the latch that holds it against the wall is too high for somebody sat in a wheelchair without very long arms to reach. And the sinks are all great for using while in a chair, apart from the laundry room sink, which is just sat in a regular cabinet. It’s a lovely idea, but every single detail should have had someone who it would apply to looking at it, and it didn’t.