Posted By Gary Renick on March 17, 2009

Today we continue with our discussion of Universal Design with Principle Six Low Physical Effort. What are we talking about when we say low physical effort, doing what? Principal Six reads as follows:

Principal Six

Low Physical Effort

The building’s design should employ design features that require little or no physical force to use them (e.g., replacing a traditional door knob with a lever handle that does not require the ability to grasp and turn the wrist). If a low level of force is required, any user should be able to engage the feature without assuming an awkward or hazardous body position (e.g., providing a smooth travel surface with minimal slope along the path of travel leading to the entrance).

Now we have some of our answer. But let’s go a little more in depth. For example, a lever handle on all doors is a good idea and they can be very stylish. But let’s consider something else about doors, how much effort or force does it require to open that door. It should require less than eight pounds of force or effort to open any door. Now that’s not allot of effort and it is often overlooked. It is especially difficult for someone in a manual chair to handle a heavy door or one that is hard to open. Another area often overlooked these days is cupboard doors. The trend is to use no handles or pulls and just have self closing hinges. For someone with limited use of their hands this can be very difficult to accomplish. The amount of effort needed to open this type of door is considerably more than if you had d-handles on the doors. Often times a person sitting in a wheelchair would use a reach extender to open these cupboard doors. And trying to grasp the edge of the doors with an extender is impossible to do. The use of d-handles require that the disabled individual hook their fingers or the extender into the handle in order to open the door or drawer. If the use of self closing hinges and no handles must continue then they must be designed in such a way as to provide somewhere for the disabled individual to hook their fingers or extender into so they can apply the effort required to open the door. There are many more area that we could discuss in detail, but this is not the time to do that. We will discuss these area in length at another time. Breathe Peace and God’s Love…..

 
Blogger Labels: Government Policy, Handicap Issues, Residential Standards, The ADA, Uncategorized, Universal Design, Wheelchair access, Wheelchair accessible home, Cupboards, Kitchens, ADA, Effort to open doors

Categories: Government Policy, Handicap Issues, Residential Standards, The ADA, Uncategorized
Tags: accessibility, ADA, Disability, Disabled, Universal Design, wheelchair, wheelchair access, wheelchair accessible home