Safety, safety, safety. It’s the number one issue when you’re talking about a way to help people (who are elderly or disabled) get around your building.
An investment many don’t think about is safety doorknobs. If you have a child, live with an elderly person, or someone who is disabled — this can be a great investment in your home or business that immediately improves accessibility.
Note: Other types of safety door openers have simple locks on them. These are a top choice for areas you don’t want children or anyone who could get hurt getting into rooms with equipment or other things inside. It can keep your loved ones (or residents) from accessing certain areas they can harm themselves in.
Other types of safety doorknobs and products allow those with limited mobility to open doors easily. This article focuses on both, covering the features and design of a product to help parents, customers better grip, open, and close doors to your property.
Using an Accessible Door Knobs
There are certain guidelines (like the Americans with Disabilities Act) that require doorknobs to be easily accessed and used by disabled individuals. In fact, an approved door opener isn’t typically a “knob” at all.
Your search begins with ADA compliant door hardware.
The standard safety door knob, for the disabled, include a handle that can be pushed down or pulled up (for ease of use). You’ve likely seen the metal hook handles in nearly every office building. These pulls work for most of the disabled, but they don’t save many of these individuals trouble. It’s sometimes hard to push down (or pull up) the handle to free doors from latches and locks.
Plus, these products possibly make it awkward to pull the door open while holding the handle.
Our Ultralatch is designed to be the safest and easiest door “knob” on the market. This product requires very little force, even using any type of non-grip. The individual using this handle simply has to pull or push and the latch is released.
Plus, the Ultralatch design allows the handle’s use in opening the door, instead of making it an awkward process.
Using a Knob to Limit Access
Safety includes both giving access and limiting access.
Limiting access for children and elderly with certain conditions is important to the safety of your home. One of the hardest facts of life is that we all age. As we get older, the body starts to slow down and not function as well as it did during our younger years. And young children don’t quite understand the potential danger of common objects.
This is why safety door knobs are useful.
Should You Use Door Knob Covers?
There are a number of other products that allow you to use your current door knobs and cover them with something that makes the door difficult to open.
Things like door knob covers, different grip style handles, and a range of other safety product that make it harder for some to enter and leave a room with a door.
Is a knob cover worth it?
Depends on your situation. For instance, and elderly loved one with dementia will likely still enter a room. However, a child under the age of five would lack the grip strength necessary to open door knobs covered with a safety cover.
Prominent brands include “Safety 1st,” and you can find these at your standard Walmart or big box retailer, any old time. Or, if it’s convenient, popp a set of doorknob cover items into your Amazon cart, choose your shipping option and wait for the product(s) to arrive.
You’ll find other options online, and is a great option for soon-to-be-parents. Order them now, and enjoy being adults without opening a door with a safety cover on it for a little longer.
Bonus tip: If you know some parents with older kids, it’s possible to score some of the products for free. Give your parental friends a call to schedule a play date and see if they have them around.
When someone in this state starts to roam around, it can cause issues. Especially places like a garage where the person won’t not know they’re around dangerous items, products, and equipment.
If Your Family Member or Loved One Needs Limited Access to Certain Areas
Those suffering from dementia nad Alzheimers are in danger, at times. If they leave the house and wander, police often get called on them because they are acting out of the norm. Obviously, it’s not their fault because their mental state has deteriorated tremendously.
Still, many are cautious and may end up calling the police in which the police will recommend you to not let them outside unsupervised. If police officers recommend keeping them inside, it’s best to listen to their advice in order to avoid future issues.
That said, a safety knob cover, by Safety 1st, or any other Company inc likley won’t work. While a product like a cover is great for smaller children, it’s not the best for someone who has enough grip strength to open the door with a cover.
Things that will work include:
- A safe, accessble door
- A solid standard lock on each door, including chain locks on every door to restricted areas
- Potential security cameras that show within your property (at least to see which way the individual headed, if they leave)
- Check to ensure all measures are still locked each day (maybe multipe times per day)
- Make each product similar or the same, to ensure the rest of your family knows how to leave quickly
Just as some may be afraid for their own safety, you should be afraid of the elderly person’s safety. Going outside or into a certain room can get them into numerous life-threatening situations. If they’re outside, they can fall down or wander into an unsafe area.
If they’re inside, they can get into a room with dangerous objects and potentially hurt themselves especially if there are stairs. Falling downstairs can be fatal to anyone but it can be more fatal to the elderly as their body is weakened and is more susceptible to injury.
Don’t think of keeping the elderly inside like some sort of cruel punishment. Some individuals need extra attention because they are a danger to themselves.
Though we may wish life was different, we can’t control what it throws at us. So why not do what you can to keep the people you love protected? There’s nothing wrong with making sure they are safe.