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Stephen Kniaz, owner and president of Adaptations Unlimited, points to a wheelchair ramp to a handicap-accessible shower in his Dover, N.H., showroom.

William Poger, a client of the New Hampshire Association for the Blind, holds up a Braille recipe card.

With America’s large population of baby boomers getting older and people living longer than ever, some local businesses and non-profit organizations are working to find practical solutions for people with declining eyesight, loss of mobility, and other ailments that may arrive with aging to stay in their homes and maintain independence.

 

“The idea of modifying homes is to let people stay in their homes,” say Stephen Kniaz, owner and president of Adaptations Unlimited in Dover, N.H., who is a Certified Aging-in-Place Specialist (CAPS).

 

“Sometimes we need to work with medical professionals to better understand what the progress of our clients is going to be,” says Steve who explains that progress can be positive, such as a stroke victim who eventually regains use of his or her body, but can also be progressively worse, such as in cases of multiple sclerosis or lupus where patients’ conditions may deteriorate over days, months, or years.

 

As part of their mission “to advance the independence of persons who are blind and visually impaired,” the New Hampshire Association for the Blind has set up a test kitchen in their Concord office to try out practical solutions for clients suffering from vision loss, such as macular degeneration—the leading cause of vision loss in Americans 60 and older—which destroys central vision needed to see objects clearly and to do tasks such as reading, driving, and cooking.

 

“It’s just amazing how easy it is to find things that work that don’t cost a lot,” says Kathy Turner, an NHAB staff member who works in the test kitchen and also travels to clients’ homes across New Hampshire to find ways to adapt their own homes.

 

Kathy demonstrated solutions that included placing a rubber band around a salt shaker to distinguish it from a similar-shaped pepper shaker, gluing a small piece of fabric next to the 350 degree temperature (anything can be cooked at 350 degrees, according to a sign on the stove) and a corresponding one on the oven dial so that a person can line them up to set the temperature. The kitchen had a similar strips of fabric next to the washer and dryer’s most used settings, and round bubbles glued onto the microwave oven’s one-minute setting.

 

Heidi Piroso, an NHAB client who was baking cookies in the test kitchen, said she lives on her own in Concord said it has taken her a while to adapt to the gas stove in her apartment. “I still haven’t gotten used to the smell of gas,” she says.

 

When more expensive solutions are required, Steve explains that families can get a home equity line to modify their homes, which usually corresponds to the home’s normal appreciation in value. “At the end of seven or eight years the home equity line’s paid off and the property has appreciated in value,” he says.

 

Steve demonstrated some of the solutions available in Adaptation’s Dover, N.H., showroom, which has been the home of his fine home interiors business since 1980. A bathtub lift, which is a chair fitted to the inside of a bath with an attached hand control, makes it easy for people to get in and out of the bath. A wheelchair-accessible shower included a small ramp, controls placed within reach, and a stool that folded up to be placed against the wall when not in use.

 

Once adjustments are made, it may mean the incapacitated or challenged partner can stay in the home 20 to 30 years—aging in place. “It’s a win-win-win,” says Steve. “There’s all kinds of quality of life issues, and the incapacitated individual doesn’t feel like they’ve ruined everybody’s life or that their life has ended.”

 

 

Adaptations Unlimited

Dover, N.H.

603 742-9600

 

New Hampshire Association for the Blind

McGreal Sight Center

Concord, N.H.

603 224-4039