How I created my inaccessible home to an accessible home?

So before becoming a wheelchair user, my house was the most inaccessible house ever! There was hardly any ramps to access too. There were literally just steps every where. It wasn't practical at all and my parents new that there was a lot of changes that needed to be done. Our house is quite small anyway, however we did have an extension put in. YYou’reprobably wondering how did you pay for all this. The truth was we didn't. The local council helped us. After I came home from rehab 9 years ago, It has taken us quite a while to get to where we are now but we just kept going, kept pushing. So in this post I will be telling you the things we have done over time. What worked and what didn't and how we improved and made the changes better.

Pollock lifts.

Now the first thing we had done was the council installed a lift for us so that I could access my bedroom properly. But that was the biggest mistake we've ever done because every single day it kept going wrong and I just had to stay in bed all day. Which wasn't great at all. The last straw was when it broke down while I was in it. The bottom bit fell out and my brother literally had to hold it so I didn't drop out. It was awful. Luckily I can't really remember any of it as it was back in the early days of my injury. I'm not saying you shouldn't get a lift I'm just saying please check the reviews of the company before purchasing anything.

Widening doorways

Inside our house, we had tiny doorways. Doorways I could barely fit through. So the council had to widen them for my chair to fit through so its much more spacious to drive around. You see at the start of my injury, I had a manual wheelchair never a powered. But as I got stronger more and more I was able to drive one. So you can just imagine the amount of walls I have ruined over the years because they weren't wide enough for me. But my doors at home are perfect.

Garden access

So far the garden, the only way out of the house is through the back gate. Before the work we had done, steps were going down towards the house so they had to ramp everything out so it was nice and smooth. At the top of the ramp, there's also a decking with tables and chairs so I could just sit up there and hang out with my friends in the summer and sun bathe.

My bedroom

So back in 2017 / 2018 I was upstairs but because of all the drama with the lift, I ended back downstairs again. I had an extension built. For a few months, I had my bed in the living room for a while and let's just say I hated it. But the extension turned out perfectly.

The bathroom

Now after coming home from hospital, the builders renovated my old bathroom into a wet room. So we had everything we needed for example a shower chair, hand rails etc: but over time because we had to go round to get into the bathroom it wasn’t practical at all. I was getting freezing I didn’t want people to see me in my shower chair it was ridiculous. So my parents and I decided to build a door going straight from my room into the bathroom and honestly it’s so much better so much more digmified as well. They built a hoist tracking going straight into the bathroom which is also perfect for me too.

If you’re living in a space that doesn’t meet your needs, know this: change is possible. Start small, ask questions, and advocate for what you deserve. Accessibility is not about limitation — it’s about freedom. And turning my inaccessible home into an accessible one gave me exactly that.