Wheelchairs
Accessible Home Design: Architectural Solutions for the Wheelchair User
Array (Paperback) Paralyzed Veterans of Amer 2006-04-15
Price:
$28.00
Answers
My husband and I are planning on building a home for our family that is comforitable and accessible for our son who has disabilities.I have had no luck finding such websites.
Write to Jerry Lewis and present your problem. They may arrange for an architect at their expense. or Contact the organization which represents the disability your child suffers with,
Good Luck
Lifemark ( www.lifemark.co.nz ) homes vary dramatically in appearance and style. What they all share in common is the flexibility to adapt to ...
My local paper advertised the following in the classified section:
"County Chip Fund now available for home owners or those shopping for a home. Funds available are $100,000 home repairs (furnaces, AC's, wheelchair ramps, handicapped accessible bathrooms, roofing, & septic systems). Private rehab $210,000 (windows, siding, furnaces, plumbing, heating, electric). Home buyer rehab downpayment assistance $117,000 (downpayment and home repairs). Contact County Planning for more information."
What does that mean?
CHIP is the Community Housing Improvement Program. States receive money from the federal government which is in turn awarded to county or municipal governments to fund this program. Generally the funds can be used to provide grants to low income households for needed repairs, energy efficiency, handicap accessibility, etc. The funds may also be used to fund a revolving loan program to provide loans to low income households to help with down payments on a first time home purchase.
If you need repairs to your home and qualify as a low-income household, you should contact the county planning office to apply for a grant or loan.
While the national headlines focus on efforts across the country to force Wal-Mart to pay more for its workers’ health insurance, an obscure story in Missouri reveals just how “sick” Wal-Mart’s health care policies can be. The story involves a former Wal-Mart worker who received some medical care benefits from Wal-Mart, but now the retailer, which made $10 billion in profits last year, is suing the disabled worker to get the company's money back. According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, last June Wal-Mart decided to sue Debbie Shank, who stocked shelves at night at a Wal-Mart in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, so she could spend the days with her three kids. Debbie was in her minivan in 2000 when she was hit by a truck. She suffered severe brain stem damage, and has been left totally disabled. After the accident, her Wal-Mart health insurance paid for her medical care. But when Debbie sued the trucking company, and won a financial settlement of roughly $900,000, Wal-Mart decided it wanted Debbie to pay Wal-Mart back. But Debbie’s husband says the money they received from the lawsuit has been used to set up a trust fund to help pay for Debbie's care, since she now requires expensive nursing home care. Wal-Mart says it has a legal right to try to recoup its medical expenses from Shank, once she won her lawsuit. "This is a very sad case, and I think many people naturally have an emotional and sympathetic reaction," a Wal-Mart spokeswoman told the Post-Dispatch. "But the reality is that we are required to protect the assets of our health plan so that it can pay the future claims of other associates and their family members. Unfortunately, it's just not feasible to start making individual exceptions.” But Wal-Mart knows that to the public, it will appear that they are trying to get money from a disabled woman, her three children, and her husband. Shank is confined to a nursing home, and will not work again, and cannot financially help her family out by working nights at Wal-Mart. So Wal-Mart is worried that its lawsuit against a disabled woman will not seem right. “Not everyone will understand this,” the company spokesman admitted, “and I'm sure that we will get a fair amount of criticism." Debbie Shank’s lawyer said, “If somebody got some money from a lawsuit and used it to buy a new home they didn't need or a European vacation ... that's one thing. But that's not the situation we're dealing with here. In view of the unfavorable publicity that Wal-Mart is getting around the country ...I'm surprised they're pursuing this against their former employee, particularly since she remains so devastated and so in need of these funds." Shank’s husband, Jim, says his wife is still so mentally confused that she can’t always identify which son she is talking to, and that she is wheelchair bound, and, due to her brain stem injury, can only move one arm and two fingers. The Shank family got around $417,477 from the lawsuit, and that money was put into a trust to pay for Shank’s future medical bills, which will be very substantial. But Wal-Mart wants to get their medical expenses back, so they can deposit them in the company’s Health and Welfare Plan. Shank says that if his wife loses her case to Wal-Mart, she will lose more than money. She will lose her private room at the nursing home, her wheelchair-accessible van and the personal care worker who helps her with her activities of daily living. Jim Shank has health insurance, which pays for some of his wife’s on-going medical bills. Shank works at several jobs to make ends meet, including real estate sales, and work at a local department store.
They get away with it because of crroked lawyers, and a justice system that favorsthe rich. Also, government regulations are very lax, while the legislators award themselves goldplated health care and pension plans. It has been this way forever.
Disease and Treatments » Blog Archive » The Wheelchair Accessible Home
Right now, it’s a buyer’s market when it comes to houses, so finding your dream home is a snap, right? What will it change, though, if your dream home has to be Electric Wheel Chair accessible? Identifying an existing home that is also wheelchair accessible it not easy to do. It’s more reasonable to work with the home you currently own and, if you can, renovate the structure to be wheelchair accessible. A less complicated course of action, though not really cheaper, is to construct your own house. Whichever of these courses of action you decide on; here are a few universal bits of advice to consider.
Predictably, a two-story home is rarely thought of as wheelchair accessible. Staircases create issues, and even motorized lifts require significantly more room than the staircases were supposed to fill. If you can avoid upper floors or downstairs hobby rooms in a home; do it. Ramps are helpful for accessing the deck, but dramatic changes in floor level usually cause more problems than they fix. So you really have to be careful.
...News
Duluth City Council to tackle office furniture debateDuluth News Tribune - Mar 08, 2010
Plans to revitalize the Bayfront District, attract the attention of Google, and make future city streets more accessible to pedestrians and bike users will and more »Vancouver Sun - Mar 06, 2010
Sullivan's message of inclusion resonates"We really are one of the most accessible cities in the world. I have recently been to American cities where you couldn't get a wheelchair-accessible cab," and more »Plano Star Courier - Mar 09, 2010
What's happening around town?Municipal Center's Council Chambers is wheelchair accessible via the elevator to the lower level. Requests for sign interpreters or other special services and more »New York Times - Feb 28, 2010
He generally designs with expansion plans for 1000 to 1500 extra feet. “When people build,” he said, “they want to accommodate for that. and more »
StarNewsOnline.com - Mar 07, 2010
Imagine not only having to find a space, but a van-accessible space with an 8-foot-wide access aisle to allow for ample wheelchair navigation.The State Journal-Register - Mar 03, 2010
I'm in an electric wheelchair. I can't be in water. That's a problem,” Jostes said. While Jostes' current apartment is handicapped accessible, and more »Crain's Detroit Business - Mar 08, 2010
Bernstein: AG post would be platform for 'real battles'Bernstein said he plans to use his experience to make attorney general's office a better advocate. “The AG's office is the most underutilized position in