Preparing your home for the visually impaired
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It can be difficult watching a relative, friend or loved one live with blindness or visual impairment, especially in their senior years. An estimated 82% of visually impaired individuals are aged 50 or older. If you’re welcoming a visually impaired loved one of any age into your home for the short or long-term, you might be wondering how to make your home safer and more accessible for them. Other than the obvious suggestions to reduce clutter and rearrange furniture, what else can you do? Fortunately, with some patience and creativity, there are lots of small and inexpensive changes you can make to help your loved ones feel right at home.
In the Kitchen
To make it easier on your loved one to find exactly what they are looking for, group similar foods together on the same shelf. Be very mindful not to mix different groups of foods together on different shelves. For example, all soups should be placed together on one shelf in the cabinet or cupboard, while all sauces should be placed on an entirely different shelf. The same goes for inside the refrigerator; fruits and vegetables should be placed on their own shelf, while meats, eggs and dairy products should be stored on a separate shelf.
You’ve probably noticed that many packaged food and beverage items from the grocery store come packaged in similar containers. How is your loved one supposed to tell the difference between different flavours of soup, rice, sauce, or other food items that have similar containers? Some creative thinking can help here. For instance, wrap a rubber band around cans of vegetables, while cans of fruit could have two rubber bands. You could deliberately purchase specific types of foods in larger sized cans to help them stand out from the other cans. For relatives and loved ones who are visually impaired but not completely blind, you could use a thick permanent marker to write a letter on the top of the can indicating the type of soup. In this scenario, you could come up with an easy-to-remember system where “T” might stand for tomato soup, for instance, and “M” might stand for mushroom soup.
In the Bedroom
The American Foundation for the Blind recommends throwing out any unnecessary clothing items and only keeping clothing that will be worn frequently. In addition, dividers should be added to all dresser drawers to keep clothing items clearly organized. Specific types of clothing should get their own shelf or divider, similar to how specific food and beverage items can be organized on their own shelves in the kitchen. To take closet organisation a step further, entire matching outfits can be carefully hung together on the same hanger to make it easy to dress without having to search for matching items or colour-coordinated outfits.
Throughout the Home
From the pantry to the closet, it is recommended to place frequently used items towards the front of any shelf so your loved one doesn’t have to spend time grasping, searching or reaching for items. This will reduce frustration by making it easier for items to be found. In the kitchen, you can put frequently used spices towards the front of the spice shelf. In the bathroom, soaps and toilet paper can be moved to the front of the closet on an eye-level shelf. The same goes for other frequently-used household items throughout your home. Also, maintaining a clean home can help prevent accidents by removing clutter around the house.
As you can see, there are several different ways to prepare your home for a person with visual impairment. Many of these tips are time-tested and proven home modifications. These are just a few suggestions for how to make your life (and your loved one’s) easier - and of course, there are limitless possibilities for how you can improve upon these ideas to fit your specific situation. With some experimentation, you’ll discover which method works best for your household.