Wet Rooms: Game Changer for wheelchair users

What if you could transform your bathroom into a fully accessible space without sacrificing style or functionality? Our knowledgeable guest, Karin Wilson, shares her experience and insights on accessible wet room showers and how they have changed her life. As a power wheelchair user with cerebral palsy, Karin has lived in multiple accessible homes and has even designed her own functional wet room showers, allowing her to shower comfortably and conveniently. Karin is also a travel blogger and has created valuable Disability Tool Kits on a variety of topics available at freewheelingtravel.org 

Join us as Karin describes the concept of a wet room—a space with multiple drains and tile throughout the room that enables people to shower on the toilet and have cabinetry nearby that is not in the way of the shower. We discuss the trial and error process of designing and remodeling accessible bathrooms, the various types of tiles and drains that can be used, and the importance of ensuring the surface is non-slip and using a linear drain to maintain a traditional bathroom look.

Finally, Karin shares valuable tips on finding contractors who understand the concept of wet rooms and universal design and the cost of creating a wet room. We also touch on the programs available to assist in the cost of home modifications, like Medicaid and Vocational Rehabilitation. Listen in as Karen shares her journey of creating accessible bathrooms and the lessons she has learned along the way, and discover how accessible wet rooms can be a game-changer for wheelchair users.

Full transcript: click here.

Cush Pocket, a proud sponsor, is a disabled owned company that sells wheelchair bags. Get $1 off by using code Angela Fox 

Transcript

Angela Fox : 0:00

Welcome to AI Home Podcast, the first podcast for real estate resources and independent living strategies for the disability community. Why? Because accessibility is home. Hi, i'm Angela Fox, blogger, author and your host. Now let's begin. Welcome everybody to Accessibility is Home Podcast, a YouTube channel. I have a fabulous guest for the International Backtub Day in June 15. Karen Wilson, who will be talking to us about a bedroom, but she is so much more than just accessible a bathroom. She has all kinds of information that she can share with us today for those who are both real-time users, members of the disability community as well as the housing community. Karen, do you want to say hi to everybody? Hi, everyone.

Karin Willison : 0:55

Yeah, my name is Karen Willis-Sek and I live in Indiana And I have SuperPalsy and I use a Power Wheel chair. My primary work is running a website called the Ability Toolbox, which has all kinds of information and resources to help people with disabilities solve everyday problems. I also have a travel blog, free Wheelin', and that's where I talk about road tripping across the United States with a disability, and I also cover other topics like home care and home accessibility.

Angela Fox : 1:29

And you travel quite a bit. You've lived in multiple locations and you've had multiple accessible housing situations.

Karin Willison : 1:38

Yes, I have. I've lived in three homes that were modified to be accessible over the years.

Angela Fox : 1:44

Three, that's a lot. Were they all homes or were they apartments?

Karin Willison : 1:48

No, i lived in the main three were my father's house and my parents' house when I was growing up And that house was actually built custom built to be accessible. And then I lived and I went to college and I lived in a condo for a little while. It was semi-accessible, but the bathroom wasn't really great. And then I moved from there and I got a house and then I remodeled the bathroom completely. That was the first time that I installed a wet room shower and it made such a difference in my life that when I moved again, i did the same thing.

Angela Fox : 2:21

Okay, repeating it again. I'm sure you learned a lot of lessons, but it's always a good thing, I think. As individuals with disabilities, we try something and then we try something new again because it's such a trial and error. But it's exciting to hear, when something just works the first time, that you want to repeat it again. Not that you probably did learn something between the person second time.

Angela Fox : 2:43

but I'm always thrilled to hear when people are like, hey, i not only did it once, i did it again because I enjoyed it the first time. I think everybody knows what a bathroom obviously is and a bathtub and kind of a wheel and shower, whether you're able to buy a person or not. But a wet room may be something that our audience is not too familiar or maybe think is something you use for, like your dogs or something. So can you describe what a wet room is?

Karin Willison : 3:13

Sure, So a wet room is a space in which the water can go almost anywhere or everywhere within a certain prescribed part of the shower of the bathroom. So the idea is that, instead of building, you still have a shower area, but you don't have to worry about whether the water stays in there or not, because you have drains throughout the main part of the bathroom that will then remove the water, and the advantage of this is that you don't have the problems that you do with roll-in showers. The roll-in shower is inherently a bad design. There's no way to fix it, because, in order to make the edge of the shower low enough that you can roll into it, it's also low enough that water can easily leak out, and I've seen people use different types of curtains and things like that to try to fix it, but ultimately leaking is a problem, whereas if you have a room where the floor is all tile, then you can have drains inside and outside the shower and then the water will all drain out and you don't have to worry about flooding so much.

Angela Fox : 4:19

So instead of having a bathroom where you have only certain segments of the room, where there's just a single drain and you don't want to get water, like near the toilet because there's no drain or anything like that, or at least it's not set up to have water around the toilet, and this is one big, giant room and you have multiple drains, is that correct? So you have to worry about where the water goes, because the entire floor is. That's correct.

Karin Willison : 4:53

In fact, I routinely shower on the toilet. That's just easier for me. It's one less transfer that I have to do. I just have tile all around the walls and therefore I can shower on the toilet just as easy as I could shower on the shower I do. also, there is cabinetry in the room, but it's all sufficiently far away from the shower area that it doesn't get wet.

Angela Fox : 5:14

Okay, okay, it's accessible for you to still get to the cabinet.

Karin Willison : 5:17

Oh yes, Okay, Okay.

Angela Fox : 5:21

So just coming back, before we get into even more of the details of a wet room, the pros and cons, I always like to explore the story behind it. What was the moment or the experience that made you, if you feel comfortable, made you feel like you know what? there's got to be a better way than a traditional wheel and shower. Would you share that?

Karin Willison : 5:40

experience. Sure, i was just thinking about how it would be so much easier to shower on the toilet and was there a way I could do that? And I believe I did run into a wet room shower when I was traveling. You are starting to see them in some hotels because hotels have issues with the rule and showers leaking, and so some of them are just putting tile in the room and putting in extra drains, and so, having tried that, i was like, oh yeah, this is much better, this is much easier, and so then that was something that I wanted to have in the future.

Angela Fox : 6:12

When you and I talked earlier, i had reached out to one of our Facebook groups that we're both members of and was asking for people who have accessible bathrooms, and we connected And then when we talked, i remember you and I discussed about all the great ideas that we get when we're traveling.

Karin Willison : 6:29

Yes.

Angela Fox : 6:30

Hotels really are a good way of seeing what is possible and to experience. There's a lot of information, let's be honest. There's a lot of information out there that you can research And to actually experience. And then also I know for myself cruise lines. The reason why I think that's the play you need is the fact that small space Correct.

Karin Willison : 6:52

It's. Another way that I learned about wet rooms was from the RV industry. A lot of smaller RVs have a wet room shower, so they actually have a toilet in a shower area And then typically there's will have a door to close it all off, but the toilet is in the same spaces to shower and it's not an issue, And so I thought why? can't I do that?

Angela Fox : 7:12

That's great. Who would? thought of an RV. We traditionally don't think RVs as accessible at all, but they certainly are becoming more and more accessible.

Karin Willison : 7:22

I did have an RV a long time ago and I found it to be. I found them to be too big for the most part, So the type of traveling that I like to do. It wasn't really practical because I like to go somewhere. The thing about with a large RV you have to drive it there and then you have to find a place to park it, and then how do you get around after that? You don't want to have to keep moving some 30 plus foot vehicle.

Karin Willison : 7:45

So what I ultimately decided was that I preferred traveling in a full size van, And so now I have a large pro master van and that is the best for me. I currently have it with a very open layout outside, but that allows me to put in or take out different things that I need when traveling. For example, I can put like a cot in there to sleep on, or I can put a bunch of stuff that I'm hauling from places. I can have multiple people on wheelchairs ride with me if necessary. It's a very selectable kind of space And for me that kind of was the best balance between accessibility and maneuverability.

Angela Fox : 9:57

Good thing for all, because you experienced your first white room.

Karin Willison : 10:00

Is that? type of travel or you can tow another vehicle behind it. You can tow, say, a mini van behind it. That is something that might be something that a lot of people would like to do And I certainly support that. It just didn't work for my specific situation, also because I have personal care assistants who generally are driving me and teaching them to drive in enormous vehicles always challenging.

Angela Fox : 10:22

Now you said that you had the RB experience where you saw, hey, it's kind of like a wet room, everything is all encompassing, and you also mentioned just earlier that the aha moment was when you're sitting on toilet. Now, for those who don't want to shower on a toilet, can you have a shower stand?

Karin Willison : 10:42

There's really no, there's. You can shower the same. You can use it just like you would a rolling shower. You would just put a shower bench in the shower area and then you just transfer onto it from your wheelchair. In fact, it's still better because you don't have the lip of the rolling shower to deal with to try to get your wheelchair in the right position, cause whenever I use rolling showers it's always a hassle to deal with a little bump and stuff. It's still annoying, no-transcript. So to not have to deal with that and to not have to ever worry about the flooding, it's still very advantageous. So if you want to still shower in the shower area, having a wet room is great And also people who, if you live with somebody and they're sharing a bathroom with you, they can still use the shower as a regular shower too.

Angela Fox : 11:31

Yeah, because a lot of, I think, what we again we've used in hotels, we're not talking like yes, there's like the shower benches, which I personally find very.

Karin Willison : 11:39

There seems to be the cheapest, the worst wobbly and everything like that's the same.

Angela Fox : 11:45

I, when I talk to a hotel, I'm like is it nailed? to the wall pro tip everybody if you're traveling or even if you know for your own wet room. Yeah, a bench is portable. You can take it with you, But it's no matter what you get. It's fairly unstable. It really relies on the best that, in my opinion, I know about you. Those things are made with the idea that whoever's going to use a kink walk and stand.

Karin Willison : 12:11

That's all mounted ones, or the ones that are really long that are usually used to get in a tub. Those at least are stable enough to get in and out with. But yeah, if they're just those little benches, those are usually useless And I, unfortunately I have run into a lot of hotels and that's all that they have. I'm like use this.

Angela Fox : 12:30

So pro tip I actually in my bathroom. I thought it would be kind of fun to do the podcast in my own bathroom And I'm really amusing my backup shower bench to put my mic on. So that's how useful it is for me to put a fine funny point.

Karin Willison : 12:48

Yeah, and if I wasn't sure what the shower situation would be, i absolutely have brought like a big, like a long sturdy shower bench with me so that I didn't have to worry about what they might provide.

Angela Fox : 13:00

Oh yeah, it's good to have as a backup When you're facing, and I travel alone. So when you're facing, i've got the one. I have the legs come off. It's not the long one that you're talking about, which I would prefer, but since I travel myself, it doesn't really fit in the suitcase all that well And it's a little heavier for me. So I've got the really wicked bench and the legs come off. If you're sharing the wet room or you have a bathroom, don't forget that even if you have a wall mounted bench, they can't flip up. So I'll wait a couple of weeks out of the way and you can get them in all kinds of different shapes. A big thing. If you listen to my channel and my podcast, i'm always about function and form. You want it functional, but the form needs to be a step away because of the resale value I like about the wet room is because it's all trial.

Karin Willison : 13:47

You can use any tile you want For the floor. You need to consider traction. You need to pick something that's non-slip. That's probably the main disadvantage of a wet room is that you do end up with a wet floor. If you had someone assisting you, or even possibly for yourself, you may need to dry the floor a bit. You need to make sure that surface is non-slip, but you can choose any tile you want, any non-slip tile for the floor and anything you want for the walls. You're only limited by your imagination of how you can design that room. You're not stuck with the white medical looking roll and shower that is typically provided in most rentals and most standard homes.

Angela Fox : 14:31

Now how does it look with the drain? I know I'm envisioning the wet room having multiple drains. How do you work around that with the tile?

Karin Willison : 14:40

Well, here's a small tile on the floor, so the small tile. It's almost like if you've ever seen small tile before it's installed. It's almost on a mesh background, like a mesh behind it so that it stays together. Because they don't sit there and stick every one of those little tiny tiles on the wall of the floor individually. They're on like a mesh So that can curve around gentle slopes like a drain And then they just grout it once it's on the curve.

Karin Willison : 15:12

Yeah so you do have to use a fairly small trial on the floor. Depending, though, if you use linear drains, you might have a bit more flexibility, which I do advise using linear drains. I don't have linear drain, but if I was doing it again, that's what I would change, because a linear drain is like a long, skinny drain that has like a trough. Basically, it's flat on the top, the water rolls into it and then it all flows down to the drain. So, versus like just a circular drain where you end up with potentially more issues with standing water, the linear drain touches water And also, if you put the linear drain along the edge of the shower area, kind of where a roll in shower would end, then if you're showering in the shower, almost all the water will actually drain out properly, versus even going past that point.

Angela Fox : 16:02

Yeah, yeah. And then, oh my gosh, it's a bigger drain because it's linear. It's literally across the floor. But traditional bathrooms have segments And so when you have a linear drain you can almost segment it, so visually at least This is the shower portion through by having that linear drain, which just blends into what we traditionally think of a bathroom is, and you're not even realizing it's wet room, because usually you see that linear drain Okay, that's a section of the bathroom, just like you would a regular bathroom. Now, are there different kinds of linear drains? Is there any particular linear drain you would recommend? I can't say specifically.

Karin Willison : 16:47

I think they're all they all. They have different lengths, so I think that's just going to be what fits best into your space. You could also use a combination. So, for example, in the main shower area you'd still probably have your standard drain, and if you're remodeling, you would obviously leave that in place as well, but then along the edge you would put the linear drain, which will help keep water from coming out of that area.

Angela Fox : 17:11

Okay, Okay, now, what did you learn from the first time? you did the wet room The first time that I did the wet room.

Karin Willison : 17:18

My house had a wooden subfloor. Now, when they installed tile and everything, they were supposed to seal it all so that water wouldn't leak through, but the seal at some point failed, and so I started noticing when I was rolling into the bathroom that it just felt a little bit saggy, like you could almost feel the floor moving under you, which is obviously alarming. Yeah, so I got in there like, oh, your subfloor is rotting out, and I was like, oh no, and the only thing about it that worked out was that I had a long road trip planned. I was going to be gone for five weeks, so I arranged for the floor to be replaced during the time I was gone and they essentially ripped it out And then, instead of putting in tile, they actually put in concrete, and they put in stamped concrete floor which still looks like tile, but it's concrete And obviously water's not getting through that at that point, and it was all very well sealed And so that was.

Karin Willison : 18:19

I hadn't liked that for the last couple of years that I lived there. Okay, if you're a power chair user, i think a lot of people underestimate how heavy power chairs actually are. When I looked, i saw the weight of my power chair I was like, oh, it's over, it's 440 pounds or so. And then it has me in it.

Karin Willison : 18:38

You have to make sure that you do have stable flooring in your bathroom and anywhere in your home.

Angela Fox : 18:45

Yeah, yeah, and heavy at level. You trigger something for me. When I travel, i use a travel chair. It does not have to talk Anything that is more than a half an inch hard, it just it does not like to go over. So if you're floor, the ground is slightly on level, i can be raised up because of the way that the frame and the suspension is. And so one thing that I always struggle with and you mentioned about the bump not only is the bump could be an issue for a traditional wheel and shower, but just having it when it's sloped and then wet, like I would literally have to push myself in my electric wheelchair, push myself away from the bench just to give me some traction and then I could back up. You still have the nice time.

Karin Willison : 19:35

amount of sloping in order to get the water to drain, but they're not typically steep. You don't need a strong slope for water to drain and it's smooth. There's not like a bump per se, it just gently slips towards the drains.

Karin Willison : 19:51

It's very, very subtle, the better designed the room is, the more subtle they can make the drains. You can also think about where you're placing them to. You need a few in the room, but you can try to avoid placing them right where your wheelchair is going to be parking so that you are fairly level when you're transferring.

Angela Fox : 20:11

Excellent What they have forgot to ask you. Kanya just triggered me As far as contractors what was your experience in finding a contractor?

Karin Willison : 20:19

There's that many who do know about wet rooms. I think if there were more that did that would make it easier, because I think a lot of the mistakes could have been avoided that I encountered. I would encourage any contractors listening to this anybody who's certified aging in place specialists or other types of certifications to look into wet rooms and best practices for design so that if you have clients who either want this or that you want to suggest it to that, you know how to do it properly so that it works well for them.

Angela Fox : 20:51

Even suggested. Part of my own consulting firms is helping contractors, real estate agents, having meaningful, candid conversations. There's so much place on the individual with the disability to steer the conversation and know what exactly you do and don't know. It's understandable to a certain degree because you want to provide the things that your customer, whether you're a contractor or a real estate agent. But the problem is a lot of people become disabled much later in life. It was. That means that they suddenly become disabled and unless you have somebody who is disabled around you, you're not going to be thinking about accessibility and knowing what the resource is and knowing about universal design, knowing about a wet room or anything like that. Now you have to change your lifestyle and change your home.

Karin Willison : 21:49

You can learn from other disabled people, but if you're not, because you're new to being disabled or you live in an area where there's not a lot of disabled people and you don't know how to connect with them online, then these are areas of knowledge that people won't have. Just being able to have that information readily available to them so that they can think about the possibilities.

Angela Fox : 22:13

Okay, great, excellent. What about the cost? Is it more expensive? about the same, i had to add traditional wheeling showers.

Karin Willison : 22:23

A little bit more. It depends on what you're doing with the drains. If you're adding more drains in the room, there will be a small cost associated with that. Then you're obviously using more tiling. You're doing more tiling versus putting in a fiberglass shower. But that's not going to be a lot of cost probably more labor cost Tile itself. The material is not all that expensive unless you're buying something really fancy and high-end. I just used pretty cheap ceramic tiling for the floor and it wasn't that much. If you're having to remodel a bathroom anyway, your cost is going to be fairly low. If you're constructing new, it's really going to be advantageous both financially and accessibility-wise to do a lat room.

Angela Fox : 23:09

If you had a wet room, would you still use curtains? Because I'm just thinking about those who all wheelchair use.

Karin Willison : 23:16

So I had someone roll my wheelchair out of the space. Just roll it forward. It doesn't even have to leave the room, it just has to go past the kind of water area just towards the other end of the bathroom. I don't use a curtain in my current bathroom. I did use one at my old bathroom in California because it was a bit of a smaller room And I did turn the chair to get it out of the room, but I would close it just to protect the cabinetry that was on the other side. But even though sometimes I didn't use it and the cabinets didn't get wet, i would say it really depends on your layout whether you're going to need a curtain, and I do have a curtain in there, but it's along the regular shower boundaries So that if a non-disabled person showers in there, they can pull the curtain, yeah.

Angela Fox : 24:00

You can actually see my curtain.

Karin Willison : 24:01

Yeah, yeah, because of the way it's designed, you might need a taller shower curtain. You may want to put your shower curtain up higher, and so you just need an extra tall curtain, but that would be the only difference, and possibly a weighted shower curtain. Those are usually better to help keep water in.

Angela Fox : 24:16

Yeah, and the reason why we want to have a tall is those who not in wheelchairs. you don't want things on the ground or slightly above the ground, because it does get wet.

Karin Willison : 24:26

Yes, it will happen. Now I just keep the curtain like flipped over the rod. It's totally out of the way.

Angela Fox : 24:32

Now let me ask you, as far as spacing goes, a wet room the same size because, as wheelchair users, obviously be able to maneuver around, not just to get into the doorway is crucial A shower on the toilet.

Karin Willison : 24:46

You can definitely make a bathroom accessible in a smaller space than you could otherwise, because then you can roll your wheelchair into the space where the shower might be. That's how my old bathroom in California was. So I would park next to the toilet and there was maybe about I would say about a foot or so between my wheelchair and the shower panel on the wall that had the sprays and stuff. So in that bathroom, which is smaller than my current one, i was still able to make it accessible because it was a wet room. It would have been a lot farther if it wasn't.

Karin Willison : 25:25

So if you have a small bathroom, it can be very advantageous to do this. My current bathroom is larger It's not enormous and it could be smaller and still work the way that it does. But essentially I have the toilet and then there's a space next to it roughly two and a half, three feet where I park my wheelchair, and then on the other side of that is actually the shower area. It's there is, but where the shower was there was a tub there. We tore that out and that's where the shower is now.

Angela Fox : 25:57

Yeah, i always advise people if you want to really know about space. if there is a IKEA store near you, i go there for inspiration. I call it the IKEA effect. They are probably the number one brand out there that has really done a phenomenal job of knowing that it's not necessarily the footage which is important but it's really important, like in the order and the angle and the doorways.

Angela Fox : 26:26

I've gone and see small bathrooms that are not intentionally designed to be wheelchair accessible. They don't have a wheel and shower. And I go and it's like 200 square feet. It's a bit ridiculous. And I go into the setup room and I'm able to get in and spin around in my permeable wheelchair not a manual wheel, just even smaller. So I always call it the IKEA effect And I just love. I love IKEA for that reason.

Karin Willison : 26:51

I love going playing around in the IKEA sample pigeons because I think they do a great job. But yeah, home.

Angela Fox : 26:58

Depot, right before COVID, announced that they were going to have an aging in place accessibility design incorporated into some of the products that they were going to be selling, because they were working with America Association for Retire People. So it's really exciting that Home Depot has started to initiate that. But one thing is there any particular shower head?

Karin Willison : 27:20

A handheld shower head because since I'm showering over a distance from the toilet and I do have a longer than average shower hose, which you can buy those on Amazon. They have all different legs. I have a really long one for travel That will help you to bridge any extra distances that you might experience.

Karin Willison : 27:42

I also have so because I took the tub out and I wanted to still make the shower nice for other people, so I put in one of the sharp panels so it has like jets on the wall that can spray at you. So if someone wants to shower and have that experience, they can, and those aren't surprisingly, not super expensive either.

Karin Willison : 28:06

It's like it was. I think they're like $300 now on Amazon inflation but still not that bad. And that includes all the jets And it came with the hose and the sprayer and everything. Yeah, there you go. I recommend sharp panels to everybody. that actually displays the temperature of the water.

Angela Fox : 28:24

Yes, it has a little light up panel and it tells you the temperature of the water, and so you can check it, you can look at it, you can see it all the time.

Karin Willison : 28:32

So the temperature is, and that way you can make sure that you don't burn yourself, and then you know exactly what time until you like that makes you good.

Angela Fox : 28:40

I have to like constantly hit the little nozzle In my case, because I do need assistance with showering.

Karin Willison : 28:47

This isn't a factor for me, but the controls are not where I can reach them. Once I was on the toilet or on the shower bench. However, what you can do in that situation is you set the water to the temperature that you know you like it, and then you actually have a little shut off valve on the end of your shower head, so then you can turn the water on and set it, but it won't be running. Then you get onto your shower bench, then you turn on your water on the hose itself.

Angela Fox : 29:18

Yeah, it's all based on your setup. Now, one thing I do try and encourage real estate agents and those who are selling and modifying homes as a business. I think unless you really need deep in it, you always have to feel that the resell value may be lower, and I know you've had multiple homes. Was there any issues when you went from one home to another home?

Karin Willison : 29:45

So my last house was in California. The market is always hot there. People will buy anything and they'll pay a lot for it. I don't know how that bathroom affected the resell value I don't think it really did But there are people with disabilities out there who are looking for a place to live, and so hopefully you can find somebody who actually needs what you have. There is an advance to the wet room with this too, which is so the way that my bathroom is set up. You could actually just install like a free standing tub just right over where all the tiling is and everything. You wouldn't really have to rip anything out, you would just have to attach it to the drain.

Angela Fox : 30:25

That's really nice. It's a way to kind of pre-plan. Having at least one meeting where a bathtub could sit is a really good way of planning for the future.

Karin Willison : 30:36

My father is getting older and luckily he's somebody who has had to think about this because of me. Last year he decided to sell the house that I grew up in the one that was accessible And I was like, whatever you buy here, i better be able to get in. But when I said that, i wasn't even just thinking about me, i was thinking about him too. When he gets older, he's got to be able to get in and out too, and he did. He chose a place. That's one story. It already had a ramp in the garage because the last person had an elderly relative. So I was like okay that's great.

Karin Willison : 31:11

And that's an example actually of accessibility being valuable To him. that place was appealing because it already had accessibility features. You was someone who needed what that house bought it because of that.

Angela Fox : 31:28

Is there anything else that you would like to share with the audience as far as a wet room, or just wisdom that you would like to share.

Karin Willison : 31:36

I would say that accessibility in your home. It makes such a difference in your life, especially in the bathroom. Just the level of independence and safety that you can have by having an accessible bathroom It's unparalleled, and the difference between having that and not having it, especially for someone with a more severe, significant mobility limitations it's huge. So I would just encourage everybody to consider bathroom remodeling and also be aware of some of the programs that are available to assist you with the cost. There's a couple of programs. If you have Medicaid, in many states they will pay for home modifications. They will do that for a home that you own or a home that is owned by a family member, and vocational rehab will also do that. So if you work or you are wanting to work, then VR will pay for things that enable you to hold a job, which includes home accessibility, and they will remodel your bathroom and kitchen if needed for you. So those are a couple of ways to make it more affordable.

Angela Fox : 32:42

HorizontalHousescom is the hub for all things related to disability home ownership. You will find my blog, this podcast, my book and how my consulting services can help real state agents or healthy developers market and tap into a larger minority group, the disability community. Please help me continue this exploration of disability home ownership by connecting through my Facebook page. Remember, sharing our collective experiences will allow us each to lower the kitchen sink but raise the bar for disability home ownership. Thank you.