You might have noticed INHS’s Main Office is looking a little spiffier, thanks to our newly replaced access ramp. The previous ramp, offering an alternative to the porch stairs, had deteriorated after many years of service and weather. It was recently replaced with a sturdy and attractive new ramp, which will boast a new paint job in the coming weeks.

Ensuring access for all visitors to our Main Office is just one of the ways in which INHS shows its commitment to accessibility and accommodations. Across our lines of business, we seek to ensure access to our properties.

All INHS Real Estate Development projects comply fully with legal requirements for accessibility, including the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. By law, a percentage of units in any given rental property must be fully accessible to those with mobility impairments and hearing and vision impairments, and we often build more of those units than legally required. Accessibility for mobility impairments includes features like roll-under sinks, lowered countertop areas, and 36” wide doorways; while visual and hearing accessible units include features such as visual strobe lights and bell signals for the fire alarm system, and doorbells with strobes and bells.

Additionally, many of our apartments include roll-in showers, even in units not specifically designated as accessible to those with mobility impairments. (Our future senior-housing project in downtown Ithaca, The Lucy, will feature roll-in showers in approximately 90 percent of the apartments.) All new rental units that are on a ground floor or reachable by elevator are designed to be visitable by wheelchair users, meaning the areas of an apartment where a visitor and the tenant would socialize, and at least one bathroom, are wheelchair-accessible. Each of our communities offers accessible parking spaces on site, and all interior and exterior common site amenities are designed to be accessible as well, including playgrounds.

Beyond the buildings we design and build, we help homeowners improve accessibility in their existing homes as well. Our Minor and Major Repair Programs help individual homeowners improve accessibility, whether needed due to aging, disability, or existing structures falling into disrepair. Metal and wooden wheelchair ramps, modified stairs, grab bars, roll-in showers, and comfort-height toilets are just some of the many accessibility improvements that our team of trained and certified Home Repair Specialists install for low-income senior and disabled homeowners.

Accessibility improvements can be challenging for homeowners at all income levels, according to INHS Director of Homeownership Delia Yarrow. “People struggle to find a qualified contractor even when they have the means to pay,” she said. “INHS has received calls from panicked family members, discharge planners, and homeowners themselves who need grab bars installed on an emergency basis to return home from a hospital or rehab facility after a fall.” In these instances, while the homeowner pays for the cost of the grab bars, INHS can provide the labor to get them installed.

We invite you to stop by our office and try out the new ramp!