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White Paper - Seating With Dignity
The bariatric segment of the population continues to increase, and this fact has profound implications for the design of furnishings for public spaces, especially those in healthcare facilities. Standard practice suggests that 10-20 percent of a facility’s seating space should accommodate bariatric needs. Furnishings for these patients must be designed with their specific needs in mind, and this is especially true of seating.
However, due to some of the unique physical needs we see in the bariatric population, traditional methods of designing furnishings for the general population fail when applied to this segment. Moreover, an entirely new set of considerations must also be taken into account.
This paper explores the key success factors affecting the design of furniture for the bariatric segment of the population. These are the considerations being relied upon to develop the next generation of furniture that will accommodate all patients, their caregivers and companions, taking into account their specific physical and emotional needs.
People within the bariatric segment of the population face numerous challenges in daily life. In addition to the emotional and psychological effects of stigmatization in society, there are many hardships that must be overcome in terms of general mobility as well as interacting with architecture, furnishings and products designed in ways that effectively exclude them. The next generation of seating solutions should be designed to alleviate rather than compound this effect.
Maintaining focus on people’s physical and emotional needs is essential in the development of successful furnishings for any consumer segment, setting or scenario. However, traditional approaches to furniture design are insufficient for addressing the needs of the bariatric segment. The scarcity of relevant data means that ergonomists and designers must exhibit great care in determining appropriate furniture dimensions. Furthermore, these dimensions must take into
account the dynamic processes of being seated, sitting, and getting up. Factoring in human perception and emotion and addressing these issues in our form factors, styling, and overall designs is crucial to promoting a sense of dignity across consumer segments. These key Ergonomic Design Considerations provide the platform for achieving excellence in developing furnishings that include, rather than exclude, the bariatric segment of the population.
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