WHEN WE CONSIDER ACCESSIBILITY for those of us growing older or who live with a disability, cottages don’t leap to mind. They’re usually situated on rock or sand, neither lending themselves to stable footing. They feature decks and docks, which means navigating stairs or steep grades. Floors might bear the dips and divets of generations. For indoor visibility, we rely on lamps. Outside at night, we rely on moonlight.
When my 92-year-old father fell four years ago, the hospital asked whether it was safe for him to return home. What they wanted to know, of course, was the likelihood of another fall. His environment was mostly safe, thanks to my mother’s foresight when she and my dad retired to their cottage on Lake Huron. The renovations to turn it into a year-round home included anticipating what they might need to grow old there. Consequently, they put everything on one level, but there were things that my parents, then in their late 50s, didn’t consider at the time. Things that, once addressed, meant that my father’s beloved cottage could remain his home after his fall.
We don’t often think about ensuring that we can not only access, but our cottages. “People hesitate until they need it,” says Geoff Fernie, a senior scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute and a Clearwater Lake, Ont., cottager. “We don’t
