Wheel Chair Experience

In designing for a ADA approved residence questions arise on how you should design a space to be navigated or used by a person in a wheel chair. Before starting final plans for a wheel chair accessible residence, a class mate and I took an hour to navigate our way from Daggy Hall to Carpenter Hall on campus in a wheel chair, to understand wheel chair usage.

Our first place we tested for accessibility in Carpenter was the library. We found the reference desk counter was the right height for a person in a wheel chair as well as the copy machine. The stacks however we quite narrow for a chair and at one point a stool in the way blocked it for the chair and I had to back down the isl.

After assessing the library we then went to the womens bathroom, where we found the door was extremely hard to open and enter without it hitting you and getting stuck.

The accessible stall on the other hand was very easy to enter and roll up next to the toilet for a transfer to the seat. This was a very good accessible design feature we found.

After exiting the bathroom with some difficulty we changed rolls and my friend got in

the chair. She assessed how easily you could order and pay for an item at the coffee stand in Carpenter. What she found was at the ordering counter in a sitting position you could not even see if someone was behind the very tall counter to take your order, nor could they see you. She did find the counter where you picked up orders at was at a good level for accessibility in the chair.

We returned to Daggy using ramps and accessible door openings and the elevator to the third floor to check out the bathroom. This bathroom was the most difficult place to access we found. The door was very hard to open, and there was a narrow isl to the back stall blocked by a trash can. The stall itself was also too small for the chair and user. Exiting proved very hard and in the end the chair got stuck and it took both of us to get it out and back to the hall way.

This hands on research into the use of space in a wheel chair was very helpful in planning for a accessible residence. From the width of hallways to the way a door should swing and what it's weight should be, we discovered so many little things we hadn't really considered in our designs to be issues to take into consideration.