Impressively Accessible Home for Wheelchair User – CASE STUDY

This Impressively Accessible Home Has a Tower That Can Be Reached by Wheelchair
By Laura Mauk, Published by Dwell Magazine

“A Baltimore father builds a house with accessibility in mind—and finds a new calling in the process. Silver linings aren’t always easy to find, but Ed Slattery sees them. “I tell people how lucky I am, and they look at me like I’m crazy,” he says. Almost five years ago, Slattery’s wife, Susan, drove their sons, Matthew and Peter, from their home in Baltimore, Maryland, to a family reunion in Ohio. On their way back, a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into them. Peter broke his pelvis and eye socket but eventually recovered. Matthew, who suffered a traumatic brain injury, lost his ability to walk. Susan lost her life. As Ed spent almost a month helping his sons recover at the Akron Children’s Hospital, he realized they needed a house with a ramp to come home to. His friends found a rental property, but a ramp was its only accessible feature. When Matthew was well enough to drive a powered wheelchair, “he made holes in the walls and knocked doors off hinges,” Ed says. “He can’t see well, and his cognitive processing is slower.” So, with settlement money from the trucking company and support from friends, Ed commissioned architects John Coplen, John Sage, and Adam Bridge, from Alter Urban Design Collaborative, to design a home that offered Matthew universal access.”