Designing universal house for wheelchair users of Haryana
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Date
2018
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Publisher
CCSHAU
Abstract
Disability is a condition of being mentally or physically challenged or disabled. There are
thousands of differently able persons in India, among those percentage is highest for locomotive
disabled. People with disability faces so many discrimination in different forms. First and foremost can
be seen in case of accessibility in residential as well as public buildings. So the study was conducted on
wheelchair users of Haryana state with three objectives: (i) To explore the views of wheelchair users on
functionality of existing house, (ii) To evolve feasible house design for wheelchair users through
Computer Aided Designing, and (iii) To develop user's manual guide for wheelchair users. 30
wheelchair users were located by employing snowball technique for data collection. The results
revealed that maximum number of the respondents (46.66%) belonged to upper middle age group,
eighty percent were male, 76.66 percent were married, 23.33 percent were educated upto 'Middle
school' and 23.33 percent were unemployed. Equal number of the respondents (33.33%) fall under
upper middle and upper lower socio-economic class as per Kuppuswamy Socio-Economic scale.
Accidental injury (40.00%) was the major cause of disability and half of them were suffering with
disability since last 10-20 years. Respondents need slightly more assistance at home than workplace.
Only 33.33 percent uses other assistive technologies besides wheelchair. Majority (40%) felt switching
over to furniture from wheelchair moderately difficult. Major adaptation taken (63.33%) was widening
of the doors. Majority (60%) had satisfactory non-slippery floor surface at entrance. Sixty percent were
having functional unobstructed width of corridor to pass wheelchair. Least number of respondents had
functional outlets around the bed (13.33%) followed by bed side table height (20.00%) in bedroom
where least satisfaction level was counted for wall hooks and closet cloth bar. In living room least
functional area was space in front of furniture (30.00%) with least satisfaction (WMS 1.83, Rank IX).
Counter top height and knee clearance space (10.00%) and storage were recorded as least functional
areas along with highest dissatisfaction in kitchen area. None of the respondents were having grab bars
in WC and shower area. Shower cubical, WC and kitchen were the least functional areas of house.
Highly significant correlation were found for socio-economic status with functionality of the house
(0.673**) and with satisfaction level of respondents (0.603**). Satisfaction and functionality of the
house is also significantly correlated to each other (0.956**). House plans were designed using
AutoCAD and Google Sketch-up pro as per the guidelines given for wheelchair user's dwelling by
Ministry of Urban Development to maximize the accessibility and comfort with the inclusion of ramps,
grab bars, knee clearance space, cloth bar height, turning radius etc. User's manual guide designed by
compiling all the recommendation for wheelchair dwelling, so the wheelchair users/ builder/ architects
can refer it while designing or constructing a house for wheelchair users as per their needs.