Improving Access to the Built Environment for Manual Wheelchair Users Through Objective Route Assessment

Manual wheelchair users face many barriers when accessing the built environment. Social sustainability for this demographic is being stifled by limited understanding of their needs and by economic pressure on building practitioners. This work describes an improved navigation tool for manual wheelchair users. The objective energy cost of a route is determined from the rolling resistance of a weighted wheelchair and is colour-coded on a map of the route. Red, orange and green colours indicate high, medium and low energy cost respectively, allowing the manual wheelchair user to assess the relative difficulties of each segment of the path. The location of significant barriers and facilitators are marked on the map. The barriers are route features such as path widths and slopes that do not comply with the New Zealand Building Code (NZBC) on accessibility and that are likely to challenge the wheelchair user. The facilitators are features such as accessible toilets, handicapped parking and lifts that will aid wheelchair user’s access to the built environment. Assessment of six routes on a university campus showed good compliance with NZBC. All paths met the minimum width requirement, 97% met the slope and cross slope specifications and 85% of entrance thresholds met the required standard. Examples of the map tool are shown for two of the routes. The research highlights the common failings of existing navigation tools and accessibility standards. This work may motivate building practitioners to make improvements beyond the minimum required to satisfy compliance, advancing the inclusivity of manual wheelchair users.