Improving accessibility issues in the Muncie community is a task Ball State University students involved in Freedom by Design strive to do each year.
Jaimie Owen, president of Freedom by Design, said the organization was part of the American Institute for Architecture Students, which is a national program that works with 36 schools around the nation.
This year the organization worked on making a home wheelchair accessible for a Muncie family with a 14 year-old boy who is in a wheelchair, Owen said.
Jason Klinker, vice president of Freedom by Design, said a bingo hall manager knew the family and recommended them.
"At first they were hesitant about what we were and what we wanted to do," Klinker said, "but once we went out and talked to them, they were really welcoming."
Owen said the group started the project in mid-September after speaking with the family to learn their needs. Afterward, he and the group organized a design for the project, he said.
"We went over our design with the family to make sure it was something they liked," Owen said.
Mother Penny Hemme said the group widened the doorway and installed a door canopy to provide shelter from the weather.
The doorway and the canopy is only the first part of the ongoing project, Owen said.
"Everything is fundraised," Owen said. "Family members of the group donated, which helped funds, also."
The organization is now raising funds for the spring when it will remodel the bathroom for the family, Owen said.
Klinker said some of the group's bathroom plans included a new shower that a wheelchair could roll into, tiling the bathroom floor to be waterproof and getting a wall-hung sink .
Owen said they were contacting businesses to donate money or supplies. Klinker said Lowe's Home Improvement gave the group a 10 percent discount on anything it bought, and other companies donated supplies such as a door.
Klinker said they were giving advice and experience to the younger architecture students who got to see the project's architecture-to-client relationship.
"To go out there and see simple everyday chores that are a hassle that we help people with, for them to learn those things are important," Klinker said.
Helping a family in need also has been beneficial for Owen.
"To watch a mother lifting her son into the bathtub, it just hits the heart like 'wow it is really difficult what he has to do,'" Owen said. "They were ecstatic about what we had done and that he could come and go with ease."
Hemme said the improvements made on her family's house have made things easier for her son Chase.
"I was glad to see that someone was going to help Chase and my family," Hemme said.
The Freedom by Design program started in 2005 at Ball State and its first project was remodeling a kitchen for a Muncie woman who needed cabinets lowered, Owen said.
"Each year we try to do more than one project, but we have had a hard time finding projects and raising money," Owen said. "We hope to eventually get a pool of potential projects and clients with needs."
Owen said a third of Muncie's community has disabilities, and the 15-member group needed to seek out these clients to help.
"We are all in school to learn and practice in the professional world," Owen said. "We want our clients to live safely, comfortably and with dignity."-á
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