Are there options for the elderly who wish to use their step into garden tub?

Thanks for your suggestions. We found her a bathtub lift. Great invention!!!

My In laws garden tub has a big wide edge they can sit on and get in, avoiding the steps altogether. rails could be installed.. I think with supervision it would be OK.

ferris is right, the garden tubs are a high risk item unless you are fully functional. Stick with the shower stall.

This has disaster written all over it! Better to get a shower one steps into at a floor level rather than stepping down into a tub. What if the person becomes dizzy from medication? What if getting out they become dizzy? Water is probably the most unsafe substance known to a senior. Too many deaths can occur. Better to opt for a sponge bath instead. Sorry, I worry all the time I will slip in my tub I have to step out of onto a little stool even though I have a non slip rubber mat. (Will replace it with a shower when I get the extra funds).

I have a small disability (I am only 50-something). To get into my garden tub, I use a combo toolbox-stool with a towel on it. I put 1 knee on the stool, sit on the edge of the tub (it is wide enough to be a small seat on the edge), and rotate my legs into tub and sit on the bottom of tub. I am capable of pushing up from the tub base to sit on the edge when getting out. The edge of my tub is almost chest high when you're sitting in it.
I am not certain what a frail person would do.

At our previous house, the garden tub was at 1 end of bathroom, and there was 1 or 2 full-length carpeted steps going up to the tub. The tub and some surround filled the end of the room.

If there is a whirlpool tub with a door than yes.she can have someone proffesionally put the rails .on.t. but if she has to climb over than there is none.