As a wheelchair user, I usually bring my own chair. Most people don’t, and that’s why we provide chairs. But what kind of seating is provided can affect accessibility and comfort.
Everyone has sat in an uncomfortable chair. What can we do to make things easier for our guests to sit down?
For starters, let’s avoid actively uncomfortable or awkward seating. There was a trend for a while of having presenters give talks or interviews on stage from barstools or bar-height chairs, which looks very nice in photos of the stage. But nobody wants to awkwardly perch on a barstool for an hour, and especially in front of an audience! Ladies in skirts or heels may find this especially awkward, as will folks with balance difficulties, circulation issues, or pain conditions. If you must have bar stools (and bar height tables), have some regular-height chairs and tables as well for people who can’t use tall chairs. (And then notice where everyone prefers to sit!)
The standard hotel/venue chair is about 18 inches wide. This is considered a pretty standard adult, ahem, “spread width.” Or it was in a mythical past when most people were more slender. Many people can sit comfortably in an 18 inch width seat (some airlines have gone even smaller, to complaints galore). But there’s another question about that standard hotel chair; how close is the next person?
In a standard hotel “theater” layout, unless told otherwise, the hotel will simply cram chairs in shoulder to shoulder, with no room between chairs. This means that if you’re sitting next to someone else, you’ve only got a few inches of elbow room, even if your torso does fit within the 18 inch seat. Add in coats, gowns, and the fact that many of us just don’t fit in an 18 inch space, and you’ve got people crammed in very tightly.
Then there’s knee room, too! When people are crammed in a very tight space, it’s hard for someone to scoot past in front of other seated guests to get to seats far from the aisle. This leads to empty seats in the middle of a row, that people don’t want to sit in because they don’t want to squeeze past people to sit there. Shorter rows of seats with more frequent aisles help with this, but the key to solving this problem is spacing. Unless you’re really tight for space, ask your venue to “space” the chairs, for example, a minimum two inches of “padding” between the chairs, and a wider spacing between rows of chairs.
Some people have difficulty standing from a seated position, especially from a chair without arms. Consider chairs with arms for elderly or disabled populations.
For more permanent installations, or if your facility has the option available, ask about bariatric seating.
PHOTO HERE
This is a photo I took in the waiting room of a medical facility where I was waiting for an appointment. It’s a new facility, but this sort of furniture can go in older buildings during a remodel. Here we see one ordinary, armless, average width chair, next to a much wider chair which also has arms. This “bariatric” chair has room for wider people, and substantial arms to help people get from standing to sitting to standing again. While this sort of seating is critical in medical settings like this waiting room, it’s something that any designer should consider when refurnishing waiting rooms, ordering new facility furniture, or meeting client needs. The wider seat also accommodates people who want to keep a small child within reach, who want room for a service dog to sit without blocking an aisle, or who are carrying items they don’t want to set on the ground (possibly because they cannot then lift them back up). While the smaller seating only accommodates some people, anyone who can use the standard seat can use a bariatric seat.
Anne for Access: making events accessible to all 