Angie's LIST Guide to
Handicap equipment

For people with disabilities, the bathroom is an area fraught with wet and slick surfaces where safety should be a major concern. Certain supplies can help to ease these concerns, making the process of using the toilet easier and preventing slips in the shower.

People can use a grab bar to help themselves stand up and to steady themselves as they sit down. It's one of the most basic and helpful kinds of supplies, it's affordable and you can install it easily.

A raised toilet seat can reduce the amount of movement required of to sit down and stand up. For people who have trouble getting to the bathroom, you can purchase a portable toilet or commode and place it next to the bed.

The shower can pose another major area of concern for persons with disabilities. You can make some design changes or add equipment to your shower to minimize accidents. By adding a shower seat or shower wheelchair, a person to sit down while showering. You can install grab bars near the shower or in the stall to help with accessibility. You should remove shower curbs to make sure that the shower is accessible because they can be difficult to step over and don't let you bring a specialized wheelchair into the shower. Creating a wider shower with accessible taps can be helpful, allowing a person to turn the water on and off without having to reach. A wider shower can make it easier for people to enter and provide room for a shower bench or a shower wheelchair. The extra room also accommodates someone to help a disabled person with showering.

Some improvements you can tackle yourself, but some may necessitate hiring a contractor, especially if you're looking to remodel your bathroom completely for best accessibility.

Getting dressed can prove difficult as well. Luckily, special tools are available to empower persons with disabilities.

A reacher or grabber can retrieve items from drawers or a closet and help people put on their shoes. Zipper pulls and button-hook tools can help fasten clothes. Dressing aid sticks have an S-shaped hook on one end and a regular hook on the other for putting on and removing different types of clothing. Sock aids and shoe horns can help people with dressing their feet.

Some clothing is specially designed for persons with disabilities. These clothes make use of elastic and typically use large fasteners, making it easier for someone with arthritis or a similar condition to fasten clothes.