There's little doubt that advancing technology will continue to mean new options for those in need of mobility equipment and residential surroundings that promote an independent lifestyle.
But the existence of new options, in and of itself, doesn't necessarily mean that end users will either know what they are or which choices are the most appropriate for a given situation. To make optimum choices, consumers need the kind of education and expertise that home medical equipment manufacturers and dealers are well-equipped to provide.
This educational process, according to experts, is still a work in progress.
“The industry is not as sophisticated as it should be in dealing with the end user,” says Don Newland, marketing manager for Brampton, Ontario-based Concord Elevator. Concord makes, among other products, incline wheelchair lifts and stair lifts.
“The technology of [HME] products is great, but we as an industry need to be communicating that to the end user,” he adds. “Fortunately, more and more folks in our industry are starting to do things with education.”
Education, he believes, is critical, because in many instances the need — such as injury or disease — for an adaptable home occurs without warning and “so much is thrust on the end user so suddenly.”
Newland says Concord works with its approximately 70 dealers to disseminate product information to end users in a variety of ways. This process could be as basic as placing literature in the waiting rooms of occupational and physical therapists. The literature addresses such topics as the comparison of using a lift versus a ramp for residential access.
The company also encourages its dealers to hold an open house for their customers. As part of the proceedings, Concord will send its “ambassador at large” Skip Wilkens, a noted wheelchair athlete, to speak to both dealers and consumers.
Often, a knowledgeable and experienced dealer is the best way for an HME manufacturer to spread the word to the end user about its products. Such is the case with Gloucester, Va.-based Accessible Environments, dealer for Otto Bock Health Care, which makes a line of bath safety products.
Earl Weis, who founded Accessible Environments three decades ago, consults with customers on their universal design needs and then recommends solutions. Perhaps his most important credential is a degree in practical knowledge.
“Most of my advice for customers is based on personal experience that I've gained from being in this field for many years,” he explains. “The cases we see vary considerably as to the type of disability and its severity. We try to provide solutions that suit individual needs.”
(Another sign of today's rapidly changing, high-tech times is that customers can find Weis' dealership on the Internet, but nowhere else. He closed down his showroom last year, finding it more cost-effective to do business solely through an online catalog.)
While the practice of spreading the word about universal design and its component products is still in the beginning stages, there are indications the public in general is getting to know more about the subject and, in some instances, driving industry trends.
For example, says Karen Lundquist, marketing communications director for Otto Bock, one of the attractions at a Minnesota home builders' trade show last fall was a model accessible home. The model showcased a variety of mobility products and had features such as thresholds that were flush to the floor, wider-than-normal doorways and hallways, and wheel space under kitchen cabinets.
Sue Jotblad, product manager for patient lifts for Longmont, Colo.-based Sunrise Medical, points out that because of aging trends in the general population, the public at large is becoming increasingly aware of one of the most fundamental components of an adaptable home: grab bars.
“With elderly needs becoming more and more common, the general population is getting used to seeing grab bars,” she explains. Jotblad says Sunrise provides educational information to end users in the form of a product video that is distributed through its dealers.
Otto Bock's Lundquist feels the trend of adaptable housing components becoming more familiar to the population at large is being driven by aging baby boomers.
“These are people who don't want to make drastic changes in their lifestyle and who want to stay in their existing home, so they are willing to make those changes necessary to have a living environment that meets their evolving needs,” she explains.
While industry experts say that the majority of universal design situations involve retrofitting an existing home, they also point out that an increasing number of new homes are being built with future adaptations in mind, even if the residents are young.
One of the most popular mobility additions to any home these days is an elevator or, in some cases, just the shaft, according to Pamela Bennett, installation manager for Edmonton, Alberta-based Ram Manufacturing, a large maker of elevators and patient lifts. She says that the trend in Canada is to include an elevator shaft in much of the country's new residential construction.
“People who are older are having elevators installed in their homes in greater numbers so they can stay in their original home,” Bennett explains. “But even younger people building a new home are building an elevator shaft that they use as a closet now [that] can be converted to an elevator so they can stay in their homes when they get older.”
Back in the U.S., home improvement giant Home Depot has become involved in the universal design market, although currently on a limited basis, according to Richard Dale, the company's global products manager. Dale says the retailer's product assortment includes such items as a roll-in shower, though the company does not install the units. He also notes that Home Depot's kitchen designers work with individuals with disabilities to create home environments that include, among other features, counters that are an appropriate height and levers instead of knobs on cabinets and doors, making them easier to open and close.
In fact, the future looks bright for the entire universal design/adaptable home market as the nation's aging consumers and HME patients — who desire to remain independent — search for the means to stay mobile in their own homes versus entering hospitals or care facilities.
