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Entrances

• Wide-angle peepholes replace fish-eyes and provide a 132-degree view of the outside. This allows you to identify people up to six feet away without having to press you eye against a small peephole. They are inexpensive. Ideally, place two peepholes at least in the outside door to accommodate people who are seated or short stature at 36”-45” and another at 54” – 64”.  Installed in a door between 42”-48”, adults of most sizes and dimensions and vision limitations can use it.
• A relatively simple device to install is called a rain diverter. It goes on the roof just over the doorway to keep rain water from falling or ice build-up right at the doorway. It reduces maintenance, and is as easy to install. Add a shelter or awning over the door, and no one needs to rummage for keys in the rain or turn a slippery wet doorknob.
• A shelf mounted next to the door makes it possible for someone to empty their hands of bags before opening the door.
• Install a back-lit doorbell from the hardware store. It can be much easier for someone with low vision or with age-related far-sightedness.

Suggested Barrier Removal and Other Details of Welcome

A checkbox next to a statement means that it corresponds with an item in the Checklist for Existing Facilities, Version 2.1.

• If a secondary entrance is easier to modify than the current main entrance, consider making it the standard entrance for all users.

• Do not use the service entrance unless it is the only option and it provides direct access into the main interior spaces, and only if its appearance can be improved so that it looks like a public entrance.

• If all entrances are not accessible, install signs at or before each inaccessible entrance indicating the way to the accessible entrance.

• Ensure that policy and practice at accessible entrances are equivalent to those at the main entrance. Eliminate as much as possible the need to have to ask for help or use special equipment to gain access.

• Widen the door or install offset hinges which add 1-1/2” to 2” more clearance (see Independent Living Stores in Resources or ask your hardware store to order for you). If this does not widen the doorway sufficiently, then is there enough space for new frame? Re-constructing an entranceway may or may not be feasible. Have a contractor evaluate what is structurally feasible.

• If your door landing is only as wide as the entrance door, increase door landing size by 18-24” on the side that the door opens. This is necessary for those who use assistive devices to walk or use mobility devices. If it is not possible to make this addition, then consider a power-operated door.

  courtesy of the Institute for Human Centered Design (formerly known as Adaptive Environments)

• If the doorway threshold is made of wood, consider cutting down the threshold (it also may be removed by prying up). Patch the floor and add a strip of trim to the door for the new vertical gap. If the threshold is aluminum or brass, it may be removable. If removing the threshold is not possible, there are a couple of options – a threshold ramp or replacing the door. If replacing the door, including its frame, get one that minimizes the threshold or is made of wood and can be cut down.

• Replace the door handle with a lever or loop handle, retrofit with an add-on level handle extension, or install an automatic door opener.

• Adjust the doors closers, oil the hinges, replace with lighter doors, or install power assists or automatic door closers. Do-Able Renewable Homes uses an example of creating your own system with a bucket of sand. A bucket of sand hooked to the wall by a pulley is used as a counterweight so that pushing a door open seems weightless.

• Adjust or replace the door closer for easy use for people without upper body strength.

• If there is less than 4 feet clearance beyond the opened door in a vestibule, keep doors open, remove a door, or install automatic door openers.

• Minimize sharp contrasts in changing levels of light. A too-dim foyer that opens to a bright room will be very difficult for many people. Increase the wattage of light in the foyer with an additional light or higher wattage bulbs.

• Block unprotected drop-off edges. A small drop-off on the edge of a pathway is enough to twist an ankle. An unprotected drop-off on a porch is a more significant danger. Imagine kids rough-housing or a person disoriented by low light levels. Even if the porch space is large, a drop off is a significant psychological stress to a person using a scooter or power chair whose equipment can malfunction just enough at any moment to shoot a wheel over the edge. Plants or shrubs along edges help. Install railings that a small child won’t crawl through.

• Lower light switches or attach a reach stick.

• For the interior of the shelter, add a flashing doorbell, a wireless portable doorbell, flashing houselights, or a paging system. These are very convenient to install and add the ability to flash a lamp, ring your phone, use a strobe light, or buzz a vibrator attached to belt when someone is at the door. These units work through transmitters and receivers and do not require additional wiring. Sonic Alert makes wireless doorbell signalers, wired doorbell signalers, and remote signal receivers. Sonic Alert carries remote signal receivers called Sonic Link, Sonic Informer, Sonic Blink, and Remote Horn. Soundbytes.com carries a flashing doorbell and phone signaler in one unit.

• If you are a dark, rural area, you might consider small floodlights triggered by motion during the night. 
  

• Regularly check and maintain all access features.

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