There were a plethora of fun evening activities over the course of this year’s Summer Study, but by far my favorite was the “Dream Home” Canvas discussion. I loved hearing everyone’s ideas for their dream homes, and it was an amazing way to get to know one another. One key part of our conversation was accessibility in the home, and we all had similar ideas of how to make our homes accessible. Thinking about what you want in your dream home is great, but getting the chance to discuss it with others is even better.
The “Dream Home” canvas discussion happened on Wednesday the 21st, and it was incredibly fun. I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the differences in what came to mind when we all thought of our dream home. While I was mostly focused on how my house would look and how I would decorate it, others thought of the experiences they would like to have in their home. In her main post, Kayla Brown said, “I think it would definitely be a one-level house with a ramp to get through the front door, and a yard for my dog to run around in. I don’t really want anything too fancy, but a room just for crafting would be [amazing]. I love crafting and it would allow me to have some space to learn how to sew!” House features were a prominent part in this discussion, and everyone seemed to have a feature they dreamed of. I mentioned many features I would like in my home, but the ones I wanted the most were “a small library/office with a bay window and a comfy couch to sit and read on. My bedroom would be big, with a small couch to relax on and a four-poster bed.” Talking about our dream homes was a great bonding experience, and I loved hearing everyone’s thoughts.
A key part of our dream home discussion was accessibility. The most mentioned accessibility features were ramps, elevators, and stair lifts. Cleo Chen said in her main post, “[o]ne thing I would put in my dream home would be having either an elevator or slide chair up and down the stairs so that people can easily get upstairs without walking. This would make it so people who have trouble walking up/down stairs can still access the upstairs of my house.” Although most of our discussion was about home features and experiences, accessibility was important to all of us, and it was heavily highlighted in our discussion.
While the main focus of our discussion was how our dream homes felt and functioned, we all talked about the importance of accessibility. Talking about what we wanted in our dream home was an amazing way of getting to know one another, and I look forward to getting to know everyone more in the coming summers.