Customers who have installed an automatic garage door tell us what a huge difference it makes in their lives. “I should have done this much sooner!” many say. They love the convenience-no 
going outside in all kinds of weather to lift up the door-and the safety benefits are reassuring as well.
For people with disabilities, these benefits pay for themselves, over and over.
Controlling a Garage Door: More than a Luxury
More people with disabilities are driving than ever before, thanks to technologies that let them control their vehicles including hand controls for accelerating and braking, left foot accelerators, steering devices, and other adaptations. If you’ve never seen such adaptations made to a vehicle and you or someone you know could benefit from a car made with such enhancements, have a look into a page like this if you’re New to Motability, as there are many different adaptations that can be made to a number of vehicles found on the road today. Vehicles, usually vans, can be modified with wider doors and ramps that allow wheelchairs to be maneuvered into the driver’s seat, if you’re trying to find such models then perhaps have a look at mobility stores current vehicle stock. Most of the major automakers manufacture vehicles for people with disabilities.
Once a person with disabilities returns to the road or drives for the first time, the ability to control the garage door isn’t just a luxury, but a necessity. Few people with limiting disabilities can raise or lower a manual door. And like other drivers, they don’t want to enter their homes from directly outdoors for the same convenience, health, and safety reasons as non-disabled people.
A Person’s Ability to Control the Home Environment is Key to Independence
Something as basic as being able to easily and quickly enter and exit one’s home can be a significant step toward independence for someone with a disability. Independence is a goal for many persons; in fact, the Independent Living Movement sponsored by the National Council on Independent Living considers it a civil rights issue. This is why automatic doors are essential for people with disabilities, not only for garages but for homes and hospitals too. This is why hortonautomatics.ca offers the convenience of automatic doors in many shapes and sizes, even specializing in healthcare doors for hospital efficiency.
A person that uses a wheelchair, scooter, walker or even a cane may even qualify for an assistive technology loan to install door openers, which are considered an assistive technology environmental control. Other examples of technologies that help a person with driving can include installing ramps at home access points and adaptations in motor vehicles including scooter carriers that attach to the back of the vehicle. All of these may be essential to help a person get behind the wheel and make a major change for the better in his or her life. Contact your state assistive technology office for more information.
Security Features Everyone Needs in their Garage
Automatic garage doors also provide a degree of security that manual doors lack. Here is a list of items that come with new, automated garage entryways:
- Remote control device with superior encryption unaffected by local frequencies
- Programmable smart control panels to ensure the door is always closed by a certain time
- Programming via smartphone
- Temperature and door track movement monitoring
- Whole-garage lighting
Warranties for garage door openers from major manufacturers are often lifetime for the motors and belt drives. New steel garage doors from quality sources like Martin Garage Doors generally last a lifetime and have warranties for 10 years or more.
