Annette, a Guide Dogs Client, recently renovated her home. She offered us her insights and experience on how a person with low vision or blindness might modify their bathroom to increase their independence and improve their level of safety around the home.
Annette provided several suggestions that might be helpful, but keep in mind that this is general advice and the right modification for your home will depend on your individual needs.
Non-slip flooring can prevent falls and slips in the bathroom.
Textured tiles or rubber mats can provide extra grip on wet surfaces, while certain types of textured vinyl or rubber are potential alternatives.
High-contrast colours and textures can help you differentiate bathroom fixtures, walls, flooring, and different floor levels.
Textured mats or tiles, as mentioned above, increase safety, but are also a way of providing tactile cues and further differentiation between surfaces.
One way of locating important elements within the bathroom more easily is to cover them with tactile markings. You might use them on toilet handles, shower fixtures, taps, and medicine cabinet doors.
Braille labels are an easy way to identify similar products that are commonly used in the bathroom, such as shampoo and conditioner, body wash, deodorant, shaving cream, and hand wash.
An alternative is a simple rubber band system: one rubber band for deodorant, two for shaving cream, and so on. Or use elastic bands to identify similar products (one band for shampoo and two for conditioner)
A pump dispenser lets you push a button and get a measured amount of toothpaste to put on your toothbrush, making the task much easier.
There are also automatic dispensers that allow you to load a standard toothpaste tube into a device you attach to your bathroom wall. A sensor automatically dispenses paste as soon as you put your brush under the tube.
Some people with low vision require brighter lighting than might be typical, while others are more sensitive to light and require filtered or low-glare sources of light.
If you fall into either category, smart-lighting may be a useful option. It can be dimmed, brightened, or even change colour using voice commands.
Our Occupational Therapists help you to approach your everyday routine with confidence – everything from cooking with friends to making your garden beautiful.
Guide Dogs Client, Annette, recently renovated her home and offered us her insights and experience on how a person with low vision or blindness might modify their living room to increase their independence and improve their level of safety around the home.
Annette offered several suggestions that might be helpful. Keep in mind, however, that this is general advice and the right modification for your home will depend on your individual circumstances and needs.
Annette included installation of smart lights as part of her renovation and describes them as an “amazing” addition to her home.
Smart lights have numerous benefits for people with low vision. Via an app, and often using voice commands, you can control the brightness and even the colour (or hue) of your household lights.
Smart lights also tend to last for a long time, and so the often-difficult job of changing the bulbs doesn’t need to happen very often.
While on the topic of lights, light shades are an excellent addition to a home, Annette suggested. In part, that’s because shades reduce glare or harshness, which is a problem for people with a variety of vision conditions.
“You can’t see any direct light bulbs in my house. I rarely use the ceiling lights,” she explained.
Light shades can also help direct light into a specific area, which can make it easier to distinguish objects or read.
Annette recommended several changes or alterations to your TV to make it easier to view.
“You could put your TV on an arm so you can bring it closer to you. You could also consider the size of your TV: bigger is not always better if you need to be close to see it.
“And make sure the TV is not in front of a light source like a window; the light is better coming from behind or being blocked out completely by blinds.”
Colour use can be really important in the home for a person with low vision, Annette told us. Contrasting colours, for example, can make life easier and a living room (or any room) safer.
Annette specifically suggested choosing furniture colours that contrast with the colour of floors or rugs.
Annette has not one but two coffee tables in her home at the moment, and one of the things she’s adamant about is that neither are made of glass. In fact, she suggested that it’s best to think carefully about glass furniture of any kind.
“Avoid glass coffee tables because they are brutal when you can’t see them.”
Our Occupational Therapists help you to approach your everyday routine with confidence – everything from cooking with friends to making your garden beautiful.
We’ve put together some tips and techniques to help people with low vision or blindness when they’re whipping up some magic in the kitchen.
These are just a few general examples of safe cooking techniques, and the specific techniques that are best for you will depend on your needs and preferences.
A talking kitchen scale can help measure ingredients accurately, allowing you as the cook to measure ingredients by weight instead of volume.
There are digital and mechanical talking scales, as well as Bluetooth talking scales that connect with your digital devices.
Nobody wants to mix up their cinnamon with their nutmeg – or worse, their sugar with their salt – so labels are always a good idea.
You can use raised letters, braille or sticky raised dots to easily identify your ingredients by touch.
Non-slip mats are designed to be placed on kitchen countertops to prevent pots and pans from sliding, reducing the risk of burns and spills.
A stove knob guard can be placed over the stove knobs to prevent accidental changes to the heat settings.
While many guards are designed to prevent children or pets from turning on the stove or oven, there are products designed specifically for people with low vision and blindness. They often include high contrast colours and/or tactile markings.
A talking thermometer can help the cook monitor the temperature of food as it cooks, reducing the risk of under- or overcooking.
There are all sorts of different varieties, including probe thermometers that you insert into food, infrared thermometers that let you check temperature without touching food, thermometers that work in the oven or the fridge, and even thermometers designed specifically for making lollies and caramel.
For people with low vision, high-contrast and coloured utensils might prove useful.
Coloured bowls or pots, for example are handy for separating peeled and unpeeled fruit and vegetables. It might also be helpful to use a light-coloured cutting board for darker-coloured foods, such as eggplant or broccoli, and a darker one for lighter-coloured foods, such as brown onions and cheese.
Our Occupational Therapists help you to approach your everyday routine with confidence – everything from cooking with friends to making your garden beautiful.
