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Part of Accessibility contractors: which type of company to hire
Accessibility contractors: what to ask them to demonstrate on site
Ask accessibility contractors to demonstrate blocking, grab bar positions, floor falls, ramp slope, door clear width and app controls on your own site.
This site does not test products, so this is not a review. It is a list of the systems where a demonstration on your own site is worth more than any specification sheet, and where a good contractor will happily provide one. Most of these cost an hour of somebody's time and prevent the expensive class of mistake.
What to take away
- Ask for a mock-up wherever a position, a height or a fall is being decided.
- Waterproofing systems should be named in the specification, not described as tanking.
- Test the vehicle on the actual driveway before the concrete is poured.
- Anything controlled by an app needs testing by the person who will use it, not by the installer.
What to ask them to demonstrate
- Blocking layoutmarked on the studs, photographed, before boarding
- Grab bar positions: clamped temporarily and used for a day before fixing
- Floor fallswater poured on the finished screed before tiling
- Threshold detaila sample assembly showing the height achieved
- Ramp slopestring line and level on the actual ground, not on a drawing
- Door clear openingthe leaf hung and measured at 90 degrees
- Lightinga temporary fitting at the proposed position, viewed at night
None of these requests are unreasonable. All cost less than the alternative.
A bar clamped in the wrong place costs nothing to move. A bar bolted through new tile costs a tiler, a plumber, and a weekend. The same math applies to every item on the list. Experienced firms tend to propose the mock-up before the client thinks to ask.
The driveway test people skip
If a wheelchair accessible vehicle is involved, the ramp or lift has to deploy on the surface you actually have, with the doors fully open, in the space between the vehicle and whatever is beside it. That geometry is specific to the vehicle.
The VA's page on the automobile allowance and adaptive equipment describes the kinds of vehicle adaptations that get funded, and each of them behaves differently at the curb. Park the vehicle where it will live, deploy everything, and mark the ground before anybody pours.
Anything with an app
Contractors increasingly install door openers, lighting, thermostats and cameras that are controlled from a phone. That is useful and it is also a new dependency. Federal rulemaking on the accessibility of web content and mobile apps applies to state and local government services rather than to household devices, but it names the standard the industry is being held to elsewhere.
It is a fair question to put to an installer: can the person who lives here operate this app. Test it before the device is fixed to the wall, and always keep a physical control as well.
Materials worth a sample
Ask for a wet sample of the floor finish, walk on it, and get the wet slip figure in writing. Handle the grab bar before it is ordered.
The material trade-offs behind those choices are in accessible bathroom materials compared, and the kinds of firms willing to do all this are described in who actually does accessible home work.
