INNOVATIVE DESIGN DEVELOPMENT OF ERGONOMIC ABLUTION STATION FOR WHEELCHAIR USER

Abstract

Mosque is an essential civic building because it functions as a community space and fulfils
the spiritual need of the normal people including special population. The registered physical
disabilities recorded are increasing annually and indicate that accessible facilities are widely
provided in the public buildings, especially the ablution area. However, the ablution area
design is still lacking, and most mosques in Malaysia do not fulfil these requirements in terms
of providing facilities specifically for wheelchair users. Therefore, this research aims to come
out with a new design of wheelchair ablution station with an adaption of universal design
principles that extends the accessibility and efficiently cater to the need of all range of the
wheelchair users. The accessible, comfort and ergonomic of ablution design are influenced by
the type of wheelchair and the different of wheelchair user's anthropometry. The QUAL-quan
method is used in the analysis, while the observation of accessible facilities was made at
several mosques, malls, and highway rest areas in Terengganu. Fifteen questionnaires were

distributed to the wheelchair user randomly to identify the customer requirements, and the
data is used for Quality-Function-Deployment (QFD) method before designing a universal
ablution station design for a wheelchair user. This study showed the 3D design development
of a new design ablution station with consideration of the ablution size, work surface
adjustability, easy to use or user-friendly, safety, aesthetic, and water-saving.