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Owning a home is one of the greatest achievements for many people. For people with disabilities, the achievement requires some additional and expensive upgrades tailored to meet their specific needs.
The Tunnel to Towers Smart Home Program helps people — specifically veterans and first responders — with those upgrades.
The group's website explained that the mission of its Smart Home Program "is to show our gratitude for the sacrifices and service of the U.S. Armed Services returning from war who have been catastrophically injured by building smart technology homes so they can regain their independence."
The group recently assisted Army Sgt. Anne Marie Robinson in turning her house into a smart home with all the special features she needed.
Robinson was stationed in Anchorage, Alaska, in October 1999. The vehicle she drove slid on a sheet of ice and fell 20 feet into an embankment. It rolled three times and partially ejected her from the driver's side window. The crash left Robinson with a broken neck and paralyzed from the chest down.
After the accident, she moved to Helotes. She purchased a home that was already built with many specific needs in mind. But the organization assisted with technological upgrades, including installing a speaker system throughout the home.
“I control everything by voice,” Robinson explained. “My computer, my phone, all of my electronics are controlled by Alexa, so the music is not blaring from one place and doesn't interfere.”
Robinson’s injuries also left her with a chemical imbalance in the brain that gave her what she called “horrible” sleep patterns. To address that, Tunnels to Towers installed specialized blinds in her bedroom too.
“So it's worked out where the blinds can come up a little bit at a time, and they close off at night. There's no light, so it's helping me get back into almost a regular sleep pattern,” she said. Ramps were also replaced around her home for smoother access.
Maybe best of all: Robinson’s home is also mortgage-free. The group paid it off for her.
Robinson said she hopes other people with disabilities can obtain similar assistance. She hopes to see standards for accessible housing, as set down in the Americans with Disabilities Act, implemented for everyone who needs the extra help.
“Because, unfortunately, not all people are willing to make that little extra sacrifice to make a door wider or fix a ramp or add a family bathroom,” she said. “Those things cost money. And if it created an incentive program for small businesses or something, to be able to put those and so we all have the same independence.”
The organization explained that it was founded in part to honor the memory of Stephen Gerard Siller, a Brooklyn firefighter who died on Sept. 11, 2001, as he tried to rescue people from the World Trade Center in New York City.
"Tunnel to Towers" refers to the moment Siller heard of the attack on the Twin Towers. When he rushed in his truck to the scene, he was caught in traffic in the Brooklyn Tunnel, so he grabbed his gear and raced on foot on the towers.
