Trans RINA, Vol 155, Part C1, Intl J Marine Design, Jan -Jun 2013
Disabled sailing is covered by programs such as RYA Sailability Program with choice of mostly small boats and production cruisers adapted for wheelchair loading. Other solutions include 2.4mR class sailboats used for Para Olympic sailing.
Disabled motor boating – mostly represented by day-boats with side door or bow ramp access, and some
level of customization of general
arrangements. Some of these designs are developed by our design office [18].
Tours and passenger boats – intended to take wheelchair users as passengers only. Those boats are adapted for wheelchair loading and provide special seating area and access measures in certain zones of the craft only.
Houseboats and pontoon boats; there are a few interesting concepts developed during recent years.
Long-term cruising on small craft for disabled is not widely available but
there is some interesting
research - see [12], etc.; cruising is one of the options we were trying to solve in the current project.
It can be mentioned that the average level of
customization of boats is low and is mostly limited to standard craft with add-on wheelchair access features; our finding is that almost no boat was designed from scratch purposely for wheelchair use!
Another important issue is marina berths and docking suitability for disabled as those factors might limit access to properly designed wheelchair-friendly craft. From the boat side, different types of boarding should be provided using ramps or crane to provide a choice of boarding solutions.
In most of marinas only restaurants and
restrooms are advertised as available for wheelchairs. 3.
NORMATIVE ASPECTS AND ERGONOMICS
Small pleasure craft placed on European Union market are required to comply with Recreational Craft Directives 94/25/EC and 2003/44/EC (RCD) and appropriate ISO Small Craft
standards. Review of requirements effecting general design 13mm footstall is considered an obstacle [1]. The
solution might be to use ‘sump’ covered by grating in front of door for formal compliance.
Requirements for handrails and handholds dimensioning for boats are currently developed for normal walking person. Minimal height of guardrails of 600mm and 450mm for small craft under ISO15085 [8] does not allow safe holding of wheelchair user. Same applies to foot stop (toe-rail) requirements – 20-30mm are far too low to
prevent rolling recommendation is out of a wheelchair. Our
handrails for grip, and ‘wheel stops’ minimum with appropriate shaping.
to consider 850-1000mm high of 100mm as
For ISO15085 non-slip surfaces are required with maximum acceptable gaps between slip-resistance patches of 75mm. Such gaps might not provide enough contact with narrow wheelchair wheel.
For wheelchairs, every deck surface that is sloped more than 2.8° (1:20) is treated as a ramp with requirement for grab rails and protection [1,9]. On pleasure boats, walking areas are allowed with up to 15° slope [8] which is unacceptable for wheelchair use.
Visibility requirements from steering station for small craft ISO11591 [6] are designed to comply with visibility range for either standing or sitting position. For wheelchair operation, sitting position must be complied with height is related to wheelchair (not a standard low- eye height). As movement of person in wheelchair is restricted, compliance should be provided with minimal head movement.
Escape measures present another problem as most escape openings sizes will not allow passage for person in a wheelchair – see ISO9094 [10]. Location of escape openings should also be suitable for wheelchair users; e.g., escape
hatches fitted at coach-roof are
accessible. Use of elevators and lifting platforms might not be appropriate for evacuation of disabled persons due to possible blackouts.
these and other of craft is
presented in [17]. Unfortunately all these standards are developed without considerations of disabled persons on board, though such issues as deck safety, escape, etc. are likely to be re-considered in case of the latter. From our design experience, this would result in serious normative restrictions that are likely to effect wheelchair-friendly pleasure craft.
Requirements for door coamings are imposed by
ISO11812 [7] and are one of the most severe limitations. With requirements for door coaming height 50…300mm for motor craft, depending on category A to D the standard does not leave space for wheelchair where
C-16
Other safety considerations are related to wheelchair transportation on vehicles [3], such as recommendations to locate wheelchair user facing forward or back, fixing the wheelchair and protection of other people on board from possible shift of wheelchair. Possible solution is to follow HSC Code [5] for passenger craft that covers issues of emergency stop and accommodation design.
Combination of wheelchair ergonomics with practical limitations on small craft presents another group of problems. This refers to height of counters, sinks, toilet bowls, design of settee, doorways and door opening types, maneuvering space, etc. Space requirements for wheelchair can be reduced slightly compared with those
not
©2013: The Royal Institution of Naval Architects
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