Home Access

Our Home Access services are designed to remove physical barriers and enhance accessibility, ensuring that your home is a place of comfort and independence.

For people with disability, physical access is often a major barrier to independent living, especially since less than 5% of homes in the US have basic accessibility features. Stairs, thresholds, doorways, and bathroom fixtures can become obstacles to daily living or even safety risks, so OSCIL provides Home Access services to adapt your home to better fit your needs.

How can OSCIL make my home more accessible?

Home access can involve the installation of special equipment to help you navigate obstacles in your home, or modifications to the structure of your home to change or remove barriers entirely. Some examples of home access projects include:

Installing a chair lift or vertical platform lift
Installing a ramp to make entrances accessible
Installing a ceiling track hoyer lift
Widening the doorways to allow a wheelchair to pass through
Removing doorway thresholds to eliminate trip hazards
Adding a tub cut to make entering and exiting the shower safer
Adding grab bars to bathrooms or steps

A set of new exterior steps go from a small porch to a concrete slab at ground level along the side of a cream house. The steps are shorter and deeper than usual to allow the user more space to safely walk up and down. White metal handrails are attached to the house on the right and the wooden railing on the left.

These are just some of the ways in which OSCIL can make your home accessible. Our home access team will conduct an assessment to identify the barriers in your home, and work with you to figure out the best solution to overcoming them. We will also refer you for any other services that will help you live more independently, such as smart home technology or assistive devices.

Who is eligible for home access services?

To be eligible for home access services, you must be:

a Rhode Island resident
self-directed (able to make your own choices)
within financial guidelines for the program

Fee for Service Home Access

In some cases, home access equipment may be covered by insurance. OSCIL works with Rhode Island Medicaid and Neighborhood Health Plan's Integrity Program to assess consumers and provide needed equipment. Some types of equipment that may be covered include:

Wheelchair ramps
Stair lifts
Ceiling track hoyer lifts
Shower chairs and tub benches
Grab bars
Vertical platform lifts

If you are eligible for home access equipment through a different insurer, OSCIL will refer you to the correct provider to receive those services.

What if my insurance does not cover home access equipment or home modification that I need?

OSCIL has other funding sources besides fee for service payments from insurance. If you meet our eligibility criteria, we should be able to provide your home access services.

Request Home Access Services!

Contact the Ocean State Center for Independent Living (OSCIL) for more information about our home access program. You can also complete our contact form.

Warwick, RI 02889

Pawtucket, RI 02860