Step 1: Learn! Most training about home modifications and universal design isn't very in-depth. We fix that by offering access to our courses, which comprehensively address home accessibility.
Home accessibility is complex. You likely know about ramps and basic features that allow somebody to enter and exit a home, but what about how the home environment can impact occupational performance? The design of the environment in every area of the home affects how well someone can perform their tasks, directly impacting mental and physical health.
Take Course 1: The State of Accessible Housing. This course helps you understand the realities of our current housing stock and what your patients will likely experience when they return home.
Course 3: Modifications for Non-Accessible Homes will help you learn about various ways to change the home environment to better support accessibility needs, right now and far into the future.
Course 4: Adaptations for Everyday Tasks will help you learn about different assistive technology for activities of daily living. Life at home can be easier and safer with some new strategies and tools.
Course 5: Collaborative Teams for Optimal Outcomes will help you learn about co-designing homes with people who have different perspectives about accessibility. No one knows it all. It's important to work together.
We save your progress.
The course platform will remember what lessons you've completed (after you click the "Complete Lesson" button at the end of each), so feel free to browse around if you're looking for something specific. That said, the course progression is most logical if you complete the lessons in order.
Completing all the courses will boost your knowledge of home accessibility and help you feel more confident in problem-solving with your patients. They're a little time-consuming but well worth it! Plus, you can get 10 contact hours of continuing education credit for them.
Learning outcomes & outlines
Expand each section below to view the details.
Course 1: The State of Accessible Housing
Learning Outcomes:
Identify four factors contributing to the lack of accessible housing in communities across the USA.
Recognize three ways that inaccessibility can have a negative impact on someone’s life.
Recognize the key difference between universal design and home modifications to educate clients, other professionals, and community stakeholders.
Identify three barriers to the adoption of universal design.
Course 2: Design Guidelines for Universally Accessible Homes
Learning Outcomes:
Recognize the interaction between people, their home environment, and their activities as three equally important variables to consider in the design of any home, but especially for new construction.
Recall three reasons why it’s important to consider 24 different areas of impairment that can be found on a population level when designing a universally accessible home.
Identify two big reasons why there’s a difference between a home with universal design features and a universally designed home.
Associate tasks that people do in ten different areas of a home with the design features and measurements that provide universal accessibility and ideal occupational performance.
Recognize over 150 design elements necessary to make a home universally accessible, and why they are all important if a home is to be usable by a wide variety of people.
Recognize three common types of homes that contribute to the inaccessibility of our current housing stock.
Identify dozens of common barriers in the status quo of home design and understand possible modifications that provide a solution for increased occupational performance.
Recognize the interaction between people, their home environment, and their activities as three equally important variables to consider before doing any home modifications.
Relate possible home modification solutions to the ability to perform everyday activities well.
Recognize the differences between universal design, home modifications, and adaptations as three unique but related approaches to increasing accessibility.
Identify common barriers in the design of ten areas of the home and understand dozens of products or techniques that provide solutions for increased function.
Identify dozens of adaptive products and techniques for safely and independently performing everyday activities throughout the home.
Recognize how adaptive products and techniques can improve occupational performance when someone experiences one or more impairments.
Course 5: Collaborative Teams for Optimal Outcomes
Learning Outcomes:
Recognize what a universally accessible home is and identify two reasons why collaboration in the design process is necessary to achieve universal accessibility.
Identify three stakeholders who need to be collaborative team members for successful universal design outcomes.
Recognize what interprofessional collaboration is and identify ten barriers to collaborating effectively.
Identify five ways to be an agent of change and advocate for successful interprofessional collaboration.
Collaboration: Who Should Have a Seat at the Table
Interprofessional Collaboration and Education
Team Member: Housing Industry Professionals
Team Member: Healthcare Professionals
Team Member: People with Disability Experiences
Collaboration: Current Status
Current Collaboration Efforts
Collaboration: Barriers and What To Do About Them
Professional Cultures and Stereotypes
Power and Policy
Funding
Our Design Process: One Solution to Collaboration
Process of Collaboration
Demonstration Home
Conclusion
Take Action: How to Co-Design and Next Steps
Test Your Knowledge
Training Course: Addressing Home Accessibility in OT Treatment
Learning Outcomes:
Recognize the environmental factors as related to client factors to plan for home access interventions.
Recognize an occupational therapist’s unique impact on a patient’s independence in preparing for discharge.
Identify ways you can integrate product/technique adaptations, home modification recommendations, and/or universal design features to patients/families during treatment.
Identify community resources that can be utilized in discharge recommendations to assist patients with the financial cost of home modifications.
