Development of Kitchen Models for Wheelchair Users

Although many wheelchair users in Korea remodeled their kitchens to solve the inconvenience of using their kitchens, most of them are not satisfied with the results. In relation to this, some people complained about the difficulty in finding proper materials when remodeling kitchens and pointed out that some kitchen elements, remodeled using foreign materials, did not meet the conditions of Korea. Also some wheelchair users said that their family members even felt inconvenienced when using kitchens after remodeling them, while they felt the kitchens became a little more convenient. Considering this, a study has been carried out to present a kitchen model for wheelchair users that reflects the Korean situation and universal design concepts. To carry out this study, first, literature on the dietary life of Koreans and the findings of former research on kitchens for wheelchair users were analyzed. Then based on this literature, design concepts reflecting conditions of kitchens, wheelchair users in Korea, and universal design criteria, a full size system kitchen prototype was developed. After that, we asked 12 wheelchair users and six non-disabled persons to evaluate its main elements, like the lowered counter and movable cabinets etc. in terms of universal design and the specific Korean situation. To assess the kitchen model from a universal design standpoint, we made an evaluation standard transforming the four universal design principles. As a result, the lowered counter, the pull out cabinets and the movable cabinet were evaluated high from a universal design perspective. The appearance of kitchen model didn’t appear to be different from the kitchen that general people use and appealed to all participants. The movable cabinet under the cook top was assessed as making efficient use of small kitchen spaces in Korea. However, it was determined that the halogen cook top needed more research in respect to overflowing onto its surface that is, most Korean food is hot and contains a lot of liquid.