Wheelchair Experience

All semester learning about Universal Design and designing for a person in a wheel chair has been through books, articles and small lectures from my instructor. The only real way to learn about the size requirements and how to design for a person in a wheel chair can only happen after I had been in their shoes. So I took a wheel chair and explored on a building just to see what it was like getting around in a wheel chair.

One of the biggest problems that I noticed was in the bathrooms. While there was enough space to get into place, it was not an easy task to get there. I had to move back and forth a few times to move into place. Since I was have this much trouble in the bathroom it made me realize that when I design my bathroom I needed to apply more room then the minimum so the person can move straight to where they need to go without getting into tight places.

The other thing I noticed was the counter top to order food, at the small food stand was at about 5 ft. Way to tall for a person in a wheel chair. While the counter to receive the food was at a height that was accessible the ordering counter was way to tall to order food, making it not fit the universal design requirements.