The bathroom – a place we need to use everyday. Most of us don’t think anything of stepping into a tub or pulling the shower curtain shut. That is, until we have someone in our household that needs extra assistance.

There are simple upgrades that can be done to a bathroom to increase accessibility. Things such as handrails and seats for the tub. However, to really upgrade your bathroom for accessibility, consider one of the following renovations.

1. Walk in showers for seniors. People with flexibility challenges, primarily seniors, trip easily. Lots of those slips happen inside the bath. The slippery floor, together with difficultly navigating with a traditional tub could well bring about problems. One cure for this is definitely a walk in shower.

Walk in showers can be as industrial as a tiled spot sectioned off with a shower curtain. Or, they can be as beautiful and classy as a plate glass enclosure, or with beautiful tile walls. There’s no reason you can’t have a beautiful bathroom as well as raise the value of your house while still making the shower accessible. Aside from installing grab bars in the shower or adding a shower stool, it’s important to make sure that the entrance to the shower doesn’t have a raised lip. Even if not needed now, later this could become important for someone with a walker to be able to move into the shower without having to lift the walker.

2. Wet rooms. Wet rooms take the walk in shower concept to a whole other level. They are generally a bit more well-known in Europe than in the States, although these bathrooms are increasing in popularity over here as well. Wet rooms change a regular bathroom into a totally wet zone, like to a sizable walk in shower, with sink and toilet included.

Again, you can put up a shower curtain to section off the shower from the rest of the room, or put up a glass shower screen. The advantage to a wet room over simply a walk in shower is that the whole floor, being designed to get wet, can also be designed to be slip resistant. This can minimize the need for a bathroom rug that can slip out from under someone.

Taking care of someone with increased accessibility needs can be difficult, especially if it is an elderly person who has just moved in with you. While the move itself can be stressful, any way that you can make the bathroom more useable for them will help with that stress. If you have the ability to upgrade your bathroom through a renovation, there are some excellent options available.