Research Paper_3rd draft

A Study on Adaptable Residential Design for Mobility Disabilities

Ben Lee (Min Hyung Lee)
Oct, 17, 2007

The increase of mobility disabilities, who use wheelchairs and other mobility aids, due to the rapid growth of aging society, traffic accidents, and industrial disaster becomes a major issue in our society. Even though government has tried to give people with disability equal opportunity to participate in their society as members, the disabled still have struggled with their physical obstacles. According to Young and Pace (2007), “The U.S. Congress, recognizing that inaccessible buildings are one form of discrimination, passed in 1988, the Fair Housing Act Amendments, and in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act(ADA). Each contains design specifications that provide minimum requirements for building design to eliminate discriminatory building practices and make spaces usable by people with disabilities.” Currently, public facilities, not only buildings but also roads, schools, and parks, are more accessible than past and use by all the people without any barrier through ADA. In spite that residential designer should need to cosider about dynamic range of people and their ability, few studies on residential space design for the impaired have been limited to public facilities. So, the handicapped have to bear the inconvenience in their house made by the standards of the general people. In some case, the enfeebled can use facilities designed for the physically challenged conveniently after remodeling, while their family feels difficulty using this facility because this design doesn’t consider about general people. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the physical characteristic of the handicapped and their family members to live a convenient life. And this research tried to apply standard of universal design, which according to the center for universal design(2007), means barrier free and accessible design for all people and makes product and builds environment to be usable by all people without exception, in residential design.

House is very important place for wheelchair users 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, the physically impaired struggle with their physical obstacles in the house. According to Young and Pace (2007), “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.” 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. 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 handicapped because it could be focal point for their independent life style. And also this design standard should be focused on the debilitated 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 the incapacitated and family in the same place and universal design, which was suggested at North Carolina State University, could be solution to solve this problem in this place. Researched by Young and Pace (2007) showed, if the impaired who use wheelchair don’t live in particular house designed in consideration of the disabled, 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. Therefore, in terms of entrance design, they suggested some criteria for the handicapped

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.
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. For example, whenever 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. With regard to kitchen design,

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.
And the bathroom is important space that causes many unexpected accident and accident due to carelessness. 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 handicapped 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 the enfeebled because it is difficult to switch from wheelchair to bath tubs and toilets. As regards bathroom design,

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.
Finally, the bedroom need more space to access to the bed and the height of bed is as same as wheelchair.

This research handled characteristic of disabled people who use wheelchair, their difficulty in general residential house and suggested some criteria as the solution of these problems. Even though this research paper suggested some standards in residential design, these are set limit to wheelchair user and this paper could not cover all the physically challenged. And there are no researches about serious illness disabled people like cerebral palsy. Therefore, designers and architects have to establish particular adaptable standards for each different the disabled.


Reference List

Ostroff , E., & Preiser, W. ( 2001). Universal design handbook. New York. McGraw-Hill.

The Center for Universal Design (2007). About Universal Design. North Carolina State University. Retrieved October 10, 2007, from http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/about_ud/about_ud.htm

Young, L. C., & Pace, R. J. (2007). Accessible multifamily housing. North Carolina State University. Retrieved September 20, 2007, from http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/pubs_p/docs/acessiblemultifamilyhousing.pdf


Young, L. C. (2007). Residential Rehabilitation, Remodeling and Universal Design. North Carolina State University. Retrieved September 28,2007, from http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/pubs_p/docs/residential_remodelinl.
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Sang's feedback

Ben, I need your most recent revision. If you have worked on the revision, upload it again