Hygienic Studies on Residential Mode in Some Public Apartment Houses (Report 2)

Abstract

The general features of the way handicapped people using wheelchairs live were studied in terms of the separation of different household activities, and the choice of living style.Handicapped residents living in public apartment houses owned by the local governments of Okayama, Kurashiki, Ibara and Beppu cities, and by Okayama and Hiroshima prefectures, were interviewed beginning from May of 1977 for a year.The results are as follows:(1) 100% of the subjects separated eating and sleeping by utilizing the dining-kitchen for meals.(2) To decrease the amount of movement required in daily activity, 81% of the subjects used the same room for both sleeping and daily living.(3) With two exceptions, all the families had separate sleeping rooms for children and adults. In one of the exceptions, the handicapped person needed constant attention.(4) Casual acquaintances of the handicapped person were received in the dining-kitchen, while closer friends were entertained in the bedroom.(5) Bedrooms for the handicapped tended to be westernized, and all had adopted a western style bed in preference to a Japanese style futon.The results suggest several points to be taken into consideration when designing living quarters for handicapped people in wheelchairs; for example, spacious western style rooms for greater ease in movement and movable partitions for combining rooms when more space is needed. The latter is especially necessary in cases where severely handicapped people must be taken care of.The above changes should be made with financial assistance from national and local governments.