Disability inclusion is the best way to ensure your impaired child lives the life they are capable of living, and home adaptations and mobility aids are certainly a good place to start…

As a parent of a disabled child, the responsibility can seem overwhelming. Not only do you have to deal with the emotional impact of it all, but you also have to think about the financial aspect of it too.

Contacting a solicitor for medical negligence or wrongful birth claims is usually the first port of call for a family who feels their child’s impairment could have been avoided. This can help a family to fund the costs of any continual medical care they may need. It will also help to fund any home adaptations that may be required to help your child live a fulfilled and accessible life.

Despite the cost, home adaptations really are one of the best applications you can provide your child. It not only helps to widen their world, but it will also give you peace of mind, knowing that your loved one is as safe as they can be. To discover more about how this can help, and some of the best home improvements you can make, read on…

The Best Home Adaptations for Impaired Children: Creating Peace of Mind for All

Common Types of Physical Disabilities

In the UK, it’s estimated that there are around 14.1 million disabled people, with eight per cent of children being born with one. That’s a huge number, when we consider the population of the UK, meaning that there are millions of parents dealing with this eventuality. Some of the most common physical disabilities that a child may be born with include:

Visual impairment, be it partially or completely blind
Hearing impairment, be it partially or completely deaf
Acquired brain injury
Any acquired physical injury, limiting movement or access
Birth injuries, causing physical impairments like Cerebral Palsy

There are also many more children who are born with learning difficulties, for example, autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, Asperger’s syndrome. However, these require less physical home alterations. So, today, we’ll just be focusing on the more physical alterations a parent can make to their home.

The Common Struggles Related to These Impairments

With these disabilities come a number of physical struggles, which would really prevail in the average home. Some of the potential struggles a physically impaired child may face include:

Not being able to reach surfaces, especially kitchen surfaces for cooking
Being unable to use the bathroom unassisted
Being unable to shower or bathe unassisted
Being restricted by doorframes and hallway sizes, especially for crutches and wheelchairs, reducing mobility throughout the home
Not being able to manoeuvre wheelchairs over flooring
Being unable to manoeuvre around beds, tables, and chairs
Not being able to advance up and downstairs

10 Top Home Adaptations for Children with a Disability

With all this in mind, fixing your family home up to cater for these struggles is one of the best ways you can support your disabled child. Not only does it provide independence, but it sets them up for a world outside the home. It will also give you and your child’s carers a bit more peace of mind, so some ideas for these adaptations include:

1. Handles and Railings

Handles should be set up throughout the home, anywhere where standing up or shifting seating position may be necessary. Especially in the bathroom, this is paramount, as your child needs to be able to move in and out of the shower, and on and off the loo, easily.

That said, these handles can’t just be drilled into any wall, especially when you consider how much weight will be lent on then. So, the walls need to be reinforced so as to prevent any damage, to the house and the person.

2. Shower Seat

Speaking of accessible bathrooms, having a shower seat installed is also necessary to allow a disabled individual to comfortably wash themselves. Alternatively, a bath may be a better and perhaps safer idea; either way, washroom seating is essential.

3. Accessible Stairwells

Ideally, someone who has to manoeuvre throughout the home with a wheelchair or crutches may benefit from living in a bungalow. However, with pricing to consider, as well as the housing market being very tricky to navigate, this may not always be an option.

For those who have no choice but to remain in a home with stairs throughout, stair lifts are always an option. These are ideal for anyone who has minimal to no movement in their legs, making getting around the house alone much easier.

4. Hard Flooring

Although it may not be the most aesthetically pleasing or cosy, wooden flooring or tiles may be the best choice for anyone with a wheelchair. Carpet can be very sticky to move across, and rugs can be even worse. Attempting to wheel anything over the edge of a rug is tough, so these are the little things that must be taken into account.

5. Self-Opening Cupboards

For anyone using a wheelchair, it can be really tricky to open cupboards. You have to get your positioning just right so you can reach it, but it won’t knock into your chair. So, another really clever trick is to install a one-push cupboard opening.

With this, all you need to do is push the cupboard, and it opens easily without you having to pull it. You may even be able to install cupboards that open in on themselves, rather than outwards. These are also really handy to help maximise space and mobility throughout the kitchen.

6. Low Cupboards

You also have to bear in mind that anyone using a wheelchair, or with low mobility, may not be able to reach cupboards that are high up. So, bear this in mind, and ensure the cupboards are as accessible as possible.

7. Widening Doorways and Hallways

Another really important change to any house for a disabled individual is widened doorways and hallways. The average doorway is far too small to cater for a wheelchair, and may also be tricky for someone with crutches to get through. Catering for this is not only a great way to support the disabled individual, but to also minimise damage throughout the home.

8. Installing Ramps

Of course, no house can be built completely perfectly, especially on a budget. So, where possible, ramps may be necessary. For example, most houses are built on some sort of ledge from the ground, which means getting outside may be a challenge in a wheelchair. By installing ramps for easy access outside and throughout the home, you’ll be good to go.

9. Lowering Kitchen Worktops

As we’ve mentioned, these home adaptations are all about preparing your child for an independent life. They’re also about creating a safe space, and moving hot objects and knives to and from counters that are too high up is definitely not safe at all. So, although this might not be completely necessary for young children, as they grow older and start to learn to cook for themselves, counters are a really important feature.

This can be tricky to get right, especially if you’re catering for a mixed home; a home with disabled and non-disabled individuals. So, it’s about creating a happy medium and catering for all members of the household in an aesthetically pleasing way. A mixture of different levels of worktops and tabletops may be the best solution for this.

10. Installing Accessible Electrical Outlets

Our final implementation, and one that you might not necessarily think of straight away, is accessible plugs. We all need to be able to reach plugs in order to live our lives to the full, be it to communicate, keep up with pop culture, or just enjoy ourselves. So, making sure switches, plugs, and everything in between, are reachable is also really important.

Affording These Home Adaptations for Your Disabled Child

Now that home adaptations are on your list of preparations, you’re probably wondering how you’ll be able to afford it all. Looking into the grants you may be eligible to is paramount. There are certain restrictions on these, but this is definitely the best place to start.

It may also be wise to look into whether your situation was due to any negligence of any sort. If so, you may be entitled to compensation, which will cover the costs of these adaptations, and also further medical bills.

It’s important to know that these options are available. No parent should have to provide their child with sub-par care, so there is NHS help and support where necessary.

Think Your Child Would Benefit from These Home Adaptations?

Clearly, home adaptations are the perfect way to foster independence in disabled children who don’t require 24-hour care. This truly allows them to get around the house on their own, and start to live a life of their own before moving out.

To add to this, it also prevents you, the parent, from having to be stressed all the time about your child being safe. Instead, you can rest easy knowing you’ve done everything you can to help them live a safe and independent life.

Did you find this blog post useful? Or, perhaps you have some other important accessible tools to add to our list that would really help people. Whatever it may be, be sure to leave a comment down below!

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.