Upon reading this article your first question might be: “What is an ADA shower stall?” Well, first and foremost, a shower stall (also known as shower chair or shower benches) is a type of seat that you can put in your shower so that you’ve got something to sit down on whilst washing. The most common type you’ll see is the teak shower stool, mainly because teak wood is best suited to the watery environments that most showers produce.
So what does the ADA part stand for? ADA stands for the ‘Americans with Disabilities Act’, and every piece of furniture that is to be used by a disabled person should comply with the rules and regulations described by the ADA. Since shower stools are most commonly used by the disabled (or the elderly) it’s important that they comply with this act.
ADA compliant shower stalls are actually easy to come by. 99% of these kinds of stools (in my experience all of the best selling stools will be, at least)) are ADA compliant. An ADA shower seat must be safe to use, and to accomplish this it must be properly made (and tested for flaws at the manufacturing stage).
When using ADA shower stalls it is also important that you use ones that are suitable for the person that’s going to be using them. If you have an ADA shower stall it is technically suitable for any disabled person, but as we all know everyone is different, and people are different weights and heights. When buying a seat, make sure that it’s wide enough to comfortably fit the person on who’ll be using it, and that it’s the right height for them to sit on comfortably. Oftentimes the reason why someone needs to use a shower stool is because they have trouble standing up for long periods of times or because they have weak joints. In situations like this, you want to make sure that they have no problems sitting down and standing back up, which is why you need to make sure that your ADA shower stall is the right height for them.
Note that the ADA is something that’s not only applied to shower seats, but to all different kinds of things (such as disabled shower cubicles and walk in shower enclosures, for example). You might also want to consider using an ADA roll in shower for easy access, but that’s a topic for another day!
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