Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
support work activities (Section 4.5);
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prevent and reduce the prevalence of work-related diseases (Section 4.6);
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support safety and health regulation for employees (Section 4.7).
4.3. Access to working space
The working environment should be designed to be accessible by individuals with
motor deficiencies and who need to use assistive aids to move (e.g. a stick or
wheelchair). This should concern access both to buildings and various rooms and
spaces and to workstations.
In fact, international standards and laws of each country define some spatial
requirements and conditions that need to be adopted in the design of buildings and of
workstations to guarantee access to every kind of employee.
However, some of these rules are dated and do not concern actual needs and
requirements. Further, these rules are often not respected and control of these
parameters is not always carried out appropriately. Every country should undertake to
periodically revise their existing rules and update them according to actual needs and
requirements, to seek to source innovative materials and technologies and therefore to
see results in the research conducted in this field.
This analysis should hold due consideration for the AAL approach and its
innovative vision of working space.
Experts in AAL, design, architecture and occupational medicine should collaborate
to study and develop new architectural and technological solutions to increase
accessibility for disabled and old people in the working environment and to improve
the working conditions of employees in order to reduce the onset of disease attributable
to the work and to improve workers' health. They should then define new rules for
regulating the design of work spaces and periodically should verify and update them.
To create awareness for the needs of older and none self-sufficient persons on the
management level and amongst colleagues, simulation and demonstration schemes are
needed which allow empathizing with the specific needs of the elderly (e.g. restrictions
in mobility and hearing problems). Scenario 11 gives a clearer idea of the use of AAL
in increasing access to the working place.
Scenario 11.
Interaction of Wheelchair with Working Space
Tom is 60 years old, works in a post office and is quadriplegic. He uses a smart wheelchair to move about in
his working space. The post office where he works is an AAL environment: the building recognizes the
position of each piece of furniture, each object and each person. When Tom arrives at the entrance to the
post office, his smart wheelchair shows him the map of the post office on its control screen: Tom specifies
to which room he would like to go. Through the wireless system, the wheelchair starts to interact with the
control core of the post office to plan the pathway to move along in order to reach the place Tom has
selected. The control core sends real-time information about the position of furniture, steps, obstacles and
people in the working space to the wheelchair and so it plans the safest and quickest path to follow. Sensors
placed in the post office recognize the presence of the wheelchair and sends information to the control core,
elaborating the data of the sensors and the pathway planned by the wheelchair, actuating the opening of
doors, lifts and other tools. Thanks to the smart environment and interaction with the wheelchair, Tom can
arrive at his workstation easily and safely.
