ARC Newel Grab Bar—left

ARC

Salt Lake City Kitchen & Bath Showroom is proud to present this decorative Grab Bar, by ARC. The 01745-L is made from premium materials, this Grab Bar offers great function and value for your home. This fixture is part of ARC's Grab Bars and Supports Collection, so make sure to check out other fixtures to accessorize your room.

Like so many businesses, the Accessibility Resource Center grew out of a combination of an overflow of ideas and frustration. Frustration was from years of seeing family and friends struggle with one of the most important parts of their lives—preserving their independence as they age or live with disability. Living independently wasn’t a choice; we simply wanted it from the start. It’s in our blood and it’s part of our American dream. And we rarely think about life without independence—we expect to live where we want. The tragedy of giving up the dream prematurely ate at us. We knew solving some basic challenges around the home could give active, healthy people years of comfortable living in the places they felt most attached to, and we kept asking ourselves, “Why aren’t homes made to accommodate this from the beginning?” Simple changes in home design and the way homes are outfitted could make a huge difference in a person’s ability to cope with aging or disability. And the crazy thing is, many of us get a glimpse of what’s to come when we have an injury, like a sprained ankle that puts us on crutches for a couple of weeks. It’s then that we find out how difficult it is to do simple things like enter a bathtub, cross a threshold, or climb steps to the front door. Having this experience is a window into our needs as we age, but it hasn’t led to widespread rethinking about the best ways to build homes to make them adaptable to meet the needs of seniors or the disabled. Helping family and friends overcome these obstacles led to innovative building techniques and, bit by bit, the discovery of products that could make a difference in their lives. Some products were old school that we adapted in special ways. In time, specifically designed products for barrier-free living reached the market, mostly from Europe. As our experience building aging-in-place homes grew we started to carry products that could help contractors achieve results like ours. And, because we had the products and the know-how to use them, we began to get questions from builders all over the country asking us to help them solve problems just like we had been facing for years. Suddenly, we were teachers, bridging the gap between emerging technology and the ability to put it to use for the benefit of all. It’s still like that today. We find products that eliminate obstacles and improve accessibility: in homes, living centers, and commercial buildings. Our goal is make the products and building designs of accessibility commonplace—someday it will simply be the way things are done. Meanwhile, the importance of our goal gets bigger every day. More of us than ever before are reaching retirement and our senior years. We’re living longer. We’re healthier. And we can have our independence provided the right steps are taken to accommodate our needs. At ARC, we’re thrilled that we can make a difference in people’s lives by removing barriers so more can live out the dream.