Living Lab Concept and Design

Living Lab Concept

May 16, 2015

Goal:  To convert 18.5’x 23.2’ space into a ‘Living Lab’ to teach occupational therapy students how to modify tasks and spaces to promote independence and to overcome disabilities to increase functional activities of daily living.  Ideally the Living Lab would be a flexible space that would allow for many different scenarios and set up so students would learn to utilize critical thinking and problem solving skills to overcome obstacles in many forms similar to the variety of situations they will encounter in the real world.

Concept:  In order for occupational therapy students to learn critical thinking skills to overcome the obstacles to function they will encounter in the real world they would benefit not from a perfectly wheelchair accessible space.  But instead a space that can be configured to be completely wheelchair accessible and reconfigured to present challenges to the students such as they will find when they begin practicing in the real world.  The living lab will be a place in which to learn transfers, how to modify tasks for independence with cooking, bathing, dressing etc.  Ideally the living lab will also have different types of adaptive equipment (low tech) and assistive technology (high tech) for the students to configure and utilize.

The Living Lab will be design based on principles of universal design and as much as possible many of the important elements will be able to be reconfigured to accommodate many uses of this space and to set up a variety of learning situations.

Current space:  The current space consists of a main room (18.5’x 10.9’) with a small cooking space in the corner, another room (12.5’x 12.25’), and a bathroom (5.1’x 7.8’) with a sink, toilet, and bathtub.  The current bathroom is not wheelchair accessible.

Living Lab proposed space:  The Living Lab would need to target the main areas of activities of daily living and home spaces that most often present obstacles to independence.  The areas of the home that occupational therapists are most often utilized for home modifications are the kitchen and the bathroom where much of the basic and higher level activities of daily living are performed.  Dressing is also a complex task and organizing the environment as well as utilizing various dressing equipment is an important aspect of occupational therapy.  The Living Lab should be composed of a kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, storage, and meeting area with a table if space allows.

Kitchen:  The kitchen should have a roll under cook top, a wall mount oven, a microwave at counter top level and plenty of storage.  The kitchen sink should be configured for a wheelchair to roll under. It could be set at standard sink height (36” above the finished floor) or it could be height adjustable depending on budget.  There should be information regarding what is required for space design of cabinets for handicap accessibility in regards to roll under spaces, clear spaces, reach ranges, heights etc. 

The kitchen should demonstrate design elements necessary for wheelchair accessibility such as high toe-kicks, pull out shelving, counter tops and lighting for visual disabilities, and pull down shelves.  The kitchen should also have a variety of kitchen equipment for people with a variety of disabilities, such as one-handed mixing bowls, cutting boards, storage containers, rocker knives, etc. 

The main cabinetry and appliances would be permanently placed but there should be a section of cabinets or possibly a long island on wheels that can be moved to reconfigure the space.   The ability for the space to be reconfigured will allow learning opportunities to present space limitations encountered in real world situations as well as to allow the space to be used for other purposes such as a meeting area or perhaps a hand therapy classroom.

Bathroom:  To be accessible (roll under sink, turn radius for wheelchair, clearance for wheelchair in front of toilet) with adaptive equipment as options to configure bathroom for different accessibility options.  Bathtub to be standard bathtub/shower configuration to allow for practice with adaptive equipment for accessibility.

 Current space: