What are the most important elements of an accessible home environment for someone with a spinal cord injury? - Patti Rogers, SW

Well number one you need to be able to get into it—I would say a ramp to me is vital. Number two, we try to make sure that they can move from room-to-room-to-room with the greatest ease possible. That could be widening doors; if they have a sunken living room, it could be having a transition ramp in the home. As far as the kitchen goes, a lot of times it’s a matter of lowering cabinets, making their sink accessible enough to where they can get up to the kitchen. I know a lot of times we have assisted contractors in making the stove more accessible because you don’t want to turn on the burners from the back of the stove; you want to have them in the front. A lot of times those are things that contractors really don’t think about unless they’ve done a lot of ADA building.