Research Paper_1st Draft

A study on residential interior design in consideration of mobility disabilities

Ben Lee (Min Hyung Lee)
Sep, 30, 2007

The increase of mobility disabilities due to the rapid growth of traffic accidents and industrial disaster becomes a major issue in our society. Through THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT for handicapped people was enforced to facilitate the use and installation of convenient facilities for the disabled people, currently, public facilities, not only newly built buildings but also roads, schools, and parks, are made to easy to access and use by all the people without any barrier. In contrast to this, few studies on residential space design for disabled people have been handled except for public facilities. So, disabled people have to bear the inconvenience in their house made by the standards of the general people. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the physical characteristic of disabled people and their family members to live a convenient life and purpose of this research establishes standard of universal design, which is wide use design for disabled people and general people.

Sang's comment

Although you need to polish your expressions in this part, you have a good introduction. My suggestions are: get some data/You need to include the needs of healthy family members who live with the disabled. This part is only briefly mentioned in the later part of this paper.

House is very important place for mobility disabilities because they should stay much time in their house and residential space design is one of the most important factors which influence their quality of life. Even though house should be cozy place in even common people, disabled people struggle with their physical obstacles in the house. House design for common people has been developed with developing industrialization, while house interior design for wheelchair users has not been developed with a lot of primary factors of difficulty. ( Center for Universal Design , North Carolina State University (2007). THE CENTER FOR VNIVERSAL DESIGN. Retrieved September 30, 2007, from Accessible Multifamily Housing Web site: http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/) According to accessible multifamily housing, “ People with severe mobility disabilities use either a power driven or manually operated wheelchair or, the more recent development, the three - and four-wheeled cart or scooter to maneuver through the environment. People who use wheelchairs have some of the most obvious access problems. They include maneuvering through narrow spaces, going up or down steep paths, moving over rough or uneven surfaces, making use of toilet and bathing facilities, reaching and seeing items placed at conventional heights, and negotiating steps or changes in level at an entrance.” For example, wheel chair user can quickly move back and forth using handrim, which are handles of both wheel. However, they can’t move to the side directly and wheelchair needs extra space to turn around. And also it is difficult to use both side hands when wheelchair users move ahead. Moreover, there are limits to approach by hand on the wheelchair and it is relevantly easy to move a flat place but it is difficult to move on prominence and depression and steep slop. Finally, it is difficult to switch from wheelchair to another object such as bath tubs, toilets, and beds and also people need safety holder to help to sustain near this objects and appropriate height and space to switch from wheelchair to another object.

The interior designs and architectures are definitely important to the disabled person because it could improve their independent life style. And also this design standard should be focused on disabled people and their family together. If this design just focuses on disabled person, their family feels difficultly in there. Thus, this standard should peruse convenient life style between disabled person and family in the same place and I want to approach from universal design, which was suggested at North Carolina State University , (Sang's comment: don't use "I" in a research paper.) to solve this problem in this place. ( Center for Universal Design , North Carolina State University (2007). THE CENTER FOR VNIVERSAL DESIGN. Retrieved September 30, 2007, from Accessible Multifamily Housing Web site: http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/) According to Center for Universal Design ,

Entrances

• one entrance without steps.
• minimum five x five-foot maneuvering space at the stepless entrance.
• for viewing, a sidelight or a peephole at 42 and 60 inches above the floor.

General Interior

• all closet rods adjustable to 48 inches above the floor.

Kitchens

• adaptable cabinets to reveal knee space at sink and under work surface near cooking appliance.
• cooktop with front - or side-mounted controls and staggered burners to eliminate dangerous reaching.
• single-lever faucets.
• side-by-side refrigerator/freezer or refrigerator/freezer with frozen food storage in the bottom.
• variable height work surfaces adjustable through a range of 28 to 42 inches.

Bathrooms

• adaptable cabinets to reveal knee space under lavatory.
• enlarged reinforced areas around toilets and bathing fixtures to provide secure. mounting locations other than the minimums found in design standards.
• offset controls in tub or shower to minimize stooping, bending, and reaching.
• single-lever faucets.
• toilet centered in a minimum 36-inch wide space, 18 inches from the sidewall.
• adjustable height hand-held shower head.
• mirror to backsplash at lavatory.

If disabled people who use wheelchair don’t live in particular house designed in consideration of disabled person , they feel difficulty during their life time with their wheelchair. Whenever they enter into their main door, they would meet prominence and depression in front of door. And they need another person’s help to enter into. Moreover, they need extra space for going through with wheelchair and more space to turn around in kitchen. However, we can not find this wide space in kitchen generally and disabled people feel difficulty to move back and forth in kitchen. And they have to bear difficulty from kitchen furniture and refrigerator. When they want to open the door of kitchen furniture and refrigerator, wheelchair users have to move beside from theses objects because of lack of space in kitchen. And the bathroom is important space that causes many unexpected accident and accidents without carefulness. The obstruction factors were increased when the disabled try to use both hands or to reach and pick up objects, to move and to assist the severe disabled in the bathroom. And also the bathroom needs extra space to move and turn around wheelchair in it. Designer have to think about the height of toilet as same as wheelchair and safety holder for disabled people because it is difficult to switch from wheelchair to bath tubs and toilets. Finally, the bedroom need more space to access to the bed and the height of bed is as same as wheelchair. (Sang's comment: This part should be moved to the kitchen part.)

This research handled characteristic of disabled people who use wheelchair, their difficulty in general residential house and suggested the solution of these problems. Even though this research paper suggested some solution, it is set limit to wheelchair user. There are no researches about serious illness disabled people like cerebral palsy . I think designers and architects have to establish particular standards in consideration of each different disabled people.

Resources
1. Accessible multifamily housing, THE CENTER FOR VNIVERSAL DESIGN, North Carolina State University (2007).
2. Creating stepless entrance in multifamily housing , THE CENTER FOR VNIVERSAL DESIGN, North Carolina State University (2007).
3. Residential Rehabilitation, Remodeling and Universal Design, THE CENTER FOR VNIVERSAL DESIGN, North Carolina State University (2007).
4. Universal Design handbook, Elaine Ostroff, McGraw-Hill, 2001