That might mean designing for a wheelchair. A walker. Limited balance or strength. Difficulty standing. Or someone who needs assistance from a caregiver.
There isn’t one bathroom layout that works for everybody.
The person comes first. Then we design the room.
If you’re planning further ahead rather than working around a need that already exists, aging in place is the companion to this one.
Accessibility starts before you reach the shower.
A beautiful accessible shower doesn’t help much if somebody can’t comfortably get through the bathroom door or maneuver around the room.
Depending on the person’s needs, we may look at wider doorways, door swing, clear floor space and how easily someone can move between the toilet, vanity and shower.
For wheelchair users especially, turning and transfer space can drive the entire layout.
For someone who has difficulty stepping over a threshold, the shower is usually one of the biggest considerations.
A properly designed curbless or roll-in shower can allow someone to enter without stepping over a traditional shower curb. For a wheelchair user, it may allow direct access into the shower.
But removing the curb also changes how we have to think about the shower itself. Floor slope, drain location, waterproofing and containing water all have to be planned together.
You can’t just remove the curb from a normal shower and call it accessible.
Grab bars aren’t decoration.
If somebody is relying on one to transfer or keep their balance, it needs to be securely anchored. When we’re rebuilding the bathroom, we can plan the locations and install proper support behind the finished walls.
Placement should also be based on how the person actually transfers and moves through the room — not simply where a grab bar happens to fit in the tile pattern.
Some people need to shower while seated. That may mean a built-in bench or an appropriate shower seat, along with a handheld shower head that can actually be reached from that position.
Controls matter too.
If you have to stand underneath the shower to turn it on, we haven’t thought the layout through very well.
We can plan controls and handheld fixtures around the person using them rather than automatically putting everything where it goes in a standard shower.
Getting onto and off a toilet can be one of the hardest parts of using a bathroom with limited mobility.
Toilet height, grab-bar placement and the clear space around it can all matter. For someone transferring from a wheelchair, the layout may need enough open space alongside the toilet to make that transfer possible.
Again, the right answer depends on the person.
A standard vanity isn’t always usable from a seated position.
Depending on the homeowner, we can look at an accessible sink configuration with appropriate knee space, reachable controls and storage that doesn’t require someone to get down on the floor or reach into the back of a deep cabinet.
And it doesn’t have to look institutional. Accessible cabinetry, good lighting, stone counters, tile and quality fixtures can all be part of the same bathroom.
I think this is important.
A bathroom can be designed around a disability without looking like a medical facility.
Function comes first, but function and good design aren’t opposites. We can still build a bathroom with beautiful tile, good cabinetry, thoughtful lighting and finishes that fit the rest of the house.
The accessibility features simply become part of the design instead of something added afterward.
If we’re designing a bathroom for someone with a disability, I don’t want to start with a generic checklist. I want to know how that person uses the room.
Those answers matter more than assumptions.
For projects that need to meet specific accessibility standards, we also need to identify the applicable requirements and design accordingly rather than assuming that something is compliant because it looks accessible.
A truly accessible bathroom isn’t a standard bathroom with a grab bar added to it.
It’s a bathroom designed from the beginning around the person who’s actually going to use it.
An accessible bathroom is priced the same way any other bathroom is — by how far the room comes apart and what goes back in. Moving plumbing to open up transfer space, building a curbless shower and rebuilding the floor to drain are all real line items rather than add-ons. Our bathroom pricing guide breaks down what drives the number.
Fifteen minutes on the phone. You’ll have a realistic range before we hang up — and if we’re not the right people for it, I’ll tell you.