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We are an older couple (in our 80s), downsizing, and moving out of our home built in the 1970s to something smaller. My wife has diabetes and uses a push-type wheelchair. We are having trouble finding a place with door frames wide enough. Aren't buildings supposed to be wheelchair accessible these days?

Guidelines to make buildings accessible to wheelchair users were set in the 1970s. They worked well then. But in the 40 years since, mobility equipment sizes and designs have changed. However, building codes have not changed to accommodate the wide assortment of power wheelchairs, manual (push-type) wheelchairs, and now the newer scooters many of the older adults are using. Some of this equipment is pretty heavy and bulky while others are light-weight. The wheel base varies as does the length of the chair and placement of the wheel axes. Some chairs have a front wheel set up while others have a mid-wheel drive or rear-wheel drive. Each one of these designs has its own space requirements for entering doorways, navigating hallways, and managing turns. So as you are looking, pay attention to doorframe width, hallway width, and the design of the home. Making it around a wall to get into another room can be a simple L-shaped turn but often requires a more complex double-L turn. Rooms must be large enough to allow the wheelchair user to make a 360-degree turn in order to leave the room. If your wife will need to transfer from the wheelchair to a toilet, then the bathroom will require some additional room. Any home, apartment, or other place of residence can be modified. But modifications can be costly so you want to find the most accessible place possible first and make whatever adjustments are necessary from there. Currently, there is a real need to update guidelines and standards for buildings (e.g., door and hallway widths, bathrooms). The minimum Wheelchair Turning Space recommended by the Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities (ADAAG) back in the 1970s isn't enough any more. The goal of updated guidelines is to make sure today's current wheelchair and scooter users can get in and out of public areas easily. With almost two million Americans in wheelchairs or scooters, this recommendation has the potential to affect the daily lives of many people like your wife.

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