How to Make Simple Wheelchair Accessibility Modifications to Your Home

When you or a family member suffers an injury or illness that requires the use of a wheelchair, you will probably have to make accessibility modifications to your home. This will allow the patient to navigate the house without difficulty. If the patient will need a wheelchair for an extended period of time -- more than a year -- you may wish to invest in remodeling, but this can get quite pricey. For temporary use of a wheelchair, you're better off with simple wheelchair accessibility modifications.

Carpet
One problem with wheelchairs is that they become easily snagged on carpet and rugs. While you probably don't want to pull up all the carpet in your house -- and that isn't necessary -- you should make passing through on the floors as easy as possible. Remove any area rugs that might cause the wheels on the chair to hang up and lay down plastic mats over carpet that's difficult to wheel across. This accessibility modification shouldn't cost you more than a few dollars if you need to purchase mats, and nothing at all if you don't.

Doorknobs
It can be difficult to use a standard doorknob from in a wheelchair, so you might want to replace your doorknobs with lever-action handles. This will allow the patient to use the doors more easily and will require less leverage from in the wheelchair. You can find such doorknob replacements at Home Depot or Lowe's for less than ten dollars each, and you can install them yourself with a simple screw driver. If it's easier, you can also remove doorknobs entirely to enable quicker access to the rooms in your home (don't do this with exterior doors).