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FAAST Access For JR Harding, Home is Where the Greatest Accessibility Is The term “home modification” may bring to mind the traditional images of grab bars, big doorways and wheelchair lifts, but when AT consumers are able to apply their imaginations to creating an accessible home, the results are anything but standard. For example, is it practical for a person who can’t get in and of a swimming pool alone to have one in their backyard? Absolutely, if the pool design is tailored is with a few practical fixtures. As JR Harding maneuvers his powerchair around the paved sundeck in his backyard, he explains how he planned and executed an accessible pool for his home. There is a two-inch curb that wraps around all areas of the porch that could pose a hazard to someone using a wheelchair. It forms a barely noticeable barrier that stops the wheel from rolling off the pavement. “I can move around out here with confidence. I can’t fall in.” There are adaptations inside the pool as well. There is a wheelchair ramp that slopes into the pool from the deck, there are grab bars on the left and right of a Jacuzzi bench at the end of the pool and a third grab bar on pool floor. “I can hold on so that when the jets are going I don’t get blown around. Then we tuck my feet under the bars so that my legs aren’t floating, because if you get in there as a quad your legs float. I have a swim jet because I had to use 15 ft of my pool as ramp, and swim jet and it allows you to swim and not have to worry about the total space,” JR said. JR works as a Partnership Specialist with the Florida Department of Education State Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (VR). An athlete at heart, JR played high school football at Culver Military Academy in Indiana and was offered a crew scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania. JR was not able to realize his dream of playing sports in college because in 1983, during his senior year of high school, JR tried to walk away from a fight and was knocked to the ground, severing his spinal cord in the process. The injury resulted in quadriplegia, but it didn’t disable JR’s natural attraction to sports. “One of my favorite things to do is to go to the big games, especially the big college games, because it is in the college environment that the heart sometimes overpowers talent. The heart and the never quit attitude is often a reflection of the disability can-do spirit,” JR said. JR’s home displays that spirit. Alongside the adaptations, there is evidence of an active life enjoyed regardless of physical ability: The walls of JR’s study are decorated with college sports memorabilia and there is an accessible desk, with four inches of height from the floor so that JR can sit in his chair at the workstation. In the bedroom, there is Venezuelan art JR collected while traveling in his ‘20s, mounted on the wall next to customized weight lifting equipment that targets the muscle groups a quad can use, primarily shoulders and biceps. Some of the exterior and interior doorways have been made accessible with smooth slopes replacing the bump that most thresholds have, automatic door openers and recessed door hinges. “That way we were able to make the doors bigger without changing the frames.” A little at a time That level of accessibility may take long range budget planning to achieve, but it is attainable. “I knew when I bought the house what I was going to do, and I got the money a little bit at a time,” JR said. JR knows the persistence it takes to deal with environments that weren’t built for you. He says he was one of the first ones ever from his state to go to college with a profound disability. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Wright State University in Ohio and moved to Florida in 1991 to earn a master’s degree in education. “There was limited access. The only thing that I could find that was reasonable and matched my strengths was teaching, because nothing interfered with my ability to communicate and schools were the only places that had some accommodations. I became the first one with a significant disability to teach in the Escambia County area,” JR said. While he was working on earning a doctorate degree from Florida State University, JR received an appointment to the Florida Board of Governors, the body that oversees Florida’s 11 public universities (at the time JR served there were 10). Before finishing his PhD, JR sustained another spinal cord injury. This time, it was caused by a highway car accident that occurred as JR was making a four hour drive alone, his leg muscles began to spasm, and he lost control of his van. His vertebrae was severed for a second time, and JR broke one of his shoulder and both legs in the crash. “At this point I was living independently, I had learned to water ski, scuba dive, drive—I lost it all going through the windshield. Everything I had gained I had to repeat; learning to feed myself, learning to write. The world of healthcare had changed since 1983. With the first injury, I was in the hospital and in rehab for seven months. With the 2nd injury, which was worse, I was in the hospital, in rehab and out in three and a half months. It was good for me because I was going crazy, but a first timer would not have been as well off,” JR said. After recovering and earning his PhD, JR went on to work for VR in Tallahassee and focused his energy on employment-related advocacy, an issue to which he remains dedicated. “I believe in empowering the consumer to understand his or her desire based on their skills and abilities to live an independent and meaningful life. Every single on of us has something to give. It’s for the individual to determine what best meets their needs and what is realistic in achieving and expressing their independence in our community.” Safee Harris
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