The Barrier-free Design And Research Of Sanitary Product Used By The Elderly

Nowadays,the situation of the aging population in our country is increasingly severe.Due to the declining physiological functions,the aged people have higher requirements on sanitary ware products than young people.However,sanitary ware products designed for the elderly in China are scarce,making it more difficult for elderly people to bathe;in addition,elderly people slip and fall frequently in the bathroom.However,among the current barrier-free sanitary ware products for aged people or related researches,most of them only improve the use of the product according to the physiological changes of the elderly,or even add safety handrails on the basis of common sanitary ware products,while they neglect their psychological changes and emotional feelings toward sanitary ware products.As a consequence,the elderly get many barriers when using barrier-free sanitary ware products.In order to solve this problem,this paper first analyzes the physiological and psychological characteristics of the elderly,and then analyzes their life style and learning ability,based on which the inspiration to design barrier-free sanitary products for the elderly can be gotten from old people’s characteristics.Then the current situation and development trend of sanitary products are analyzed to ensure the foreseeability of the design.Next the theory of barrier-free design is systematically analyzed to summarize the principles and key points of barrier-free design which should be mastered.At the same time,the detailed investigation and interviews are conducted among the elderly people to obtain the needs of the user groups.Finally,the obstacle factors for the elderly to use sanitary products are analyzed,and the corresponding solutions are concluded.The design practice is carried out with the inspiration from the old people’s characteristics to design barrier-free sanitary products,which proves the feasibility of the theoretical research.We hope that through conducting this research we can do our utmost to improve barrier-free construction for elderly people in China,enabling elderly people enjoy the barrier-free bathing physically and psychologically.We hope the elderly can actively accept and use barrier-free sanitary ware products;in addition,through this research on elderly barrier-free sanitary ware products,we intend to call for the care of the elderly from the whole society.