Training for a triathlon Julie was biking and was hit by a car and paralysed from the breastbone down. Thrown 30 feet, split her head, broke teeth, broke her nose, broke ribs, broke her spine in two places, T4 and L1. 5 people every day sustain a spinal cord injury in Ontario. Fast forward 6 years and Julie is now an Accessibility Strategist.

How do we begin having conversations with accessible clients? Just have the same conversations you would have with other clients, no reason to beat around the bush, ask the questions, get to know your clients, having those direct questions answered will help contractors and designers design and build a perfect space for your clients, all your clients.

By far the bathroom is the most important room for accessibility, so many details that need to be thoroughly considered. Consider space around toilet, seating inside shower, where the valves will be, always a thermostatic valve, linear drains with one side slope, there is so much to consider, have those conversations. We must consider all trades and their scope of work, light switch heights, HVAC thermostat height, garage door opener height, so many details that must be discussed and considered.

22% of the Canadian population is identified as accessible needs, more businesses need to realize the loss revenue, more contractors need to begin building for accessible clients. Accessibility is about energy, when a space isn’t dead level, a person using a wheelchair must use more physical and mental strength to move around the space.

We need to have more industry people looking into building for more accessible clients and understanding that accessible can be brough to new levels of design and construction. Universal design is family design.

Shared and Discussed Links

https://www.ontario.ca/page/specialist-high-skills-major

https://www.scc.ca/en/standards/notices-of-intent/csa/accessible-homes

What an amazing show and thank you so much Julie for sharing so much personal experiences and educating our listeners on so much to do with accessible renovating, Thank you. Find Julie on IG @sawesome_julie and contact Julie on her email at [email protected] and her web site at www.juliesawchuk.ca and remember the first 5 listeners to sign up for her newsletter will receive a free copy of her book. Find her books on her web site and on Amazon “Build Your Space” and “Building Better Bathrooms”. Find her on LinkedIN, connect with her, find her YouTube channel, Julie Sawchuk. Also, you can download for free here book “Roadmap to Recovery from her web site. Julie has some online courses for anyone to try, learn more about bathrooms and all the rooms in the home for accessibility.

Find Manny @hardcorerenos [email protected] [email protected]