Author: Tony Trott

I think it’s pretty common knowledge that everybody has their own needs; this really becomes evident when you are charged with designing something to meet unique specifications. The case in hand right now is that of accessibility of a shower. Please note that the picture to the right is not our shower, it is  an AI generated picture  from the Adobe website!

In some ways this probably sounds like a no-brainer. I mean to make a shower accessible you just add grab bars, right? Not so. First is the understanding that it is a roll in shower. Second, my wife and I both use a shower chair, so we do not use any kind of fold down bench. Next are grab bars. That begs the questions where do you put them, what size are the bars, should they be vertical, horizontal, or diagonal, and there are more questions involved such as height. I have seen websites that purport to be experts on placement of grab bars and say things like, “Never place a grab bar diagonally.” The best advice about grab bar placement and accessible shower design in general is to make sure to get user perspective.

In the case of our new shower, it will be shared by more than one person, so we are going over to see it while construction is underway so we can point out where we want grab bars placed and answer other questions about them.

My wife and I are well versed in our respective needs, so I’m sure that we will be able to agree on placement of grab bars so that we can both use this shower safely and efficiently.