First Post on Human Factors & Engineering

​​This is the first of many posts that I will make related to human factors and engineering considerations that sometimes are very visible, and other times are more hidden today’s discussion is on aisle chairs that people with disabilities use to board and de plane airplanes these devices although intended for good use have several different issues from a human factors perspective.

1. the strapping system much like a car seat developed for children the typical aisle chair has a chest crossing strapping mechanism which joins in the center however the process of putting these straps together is not trivial and requires knowledge on how to line them up period from a human factors angle comma, we would expect that the individuals who were setting up the straps for the person with the disability would have a degree of competency however I have found through 20 plus years of flying that this is a on the job training learned skill period although not overly difficult I do think that we as human factors professionals could do better to assist both industry and airline personnel.

On the training, testing, and evaluation of these devices. Most of the time. It is a backpack Lake design where the individual with the disability has to reach into one side, reach into the other, and the strap is connected at the center through multiple grid points that you challenge with this is that the people doing the strapping don’t know how to effectively pull down to tighten the straps, and they are relying on the individual with the disability to tell them what is good and what is not.

This is okay if you have someone who’s a more experienced flyer but I’m concerned about people with disabilities who are not as frequent fliers or who do not know how to determine whether these straps are effectively put on.

The other type of straps look very similar to a seat belt which comes from opposite shoulder to lower hip from two sides to form an X across the chest of the individual with the disability This is an alternative strap design but also needs to be properly set up to ensure that the person stays in place one question that I have as an everyday wheelchair user is why not? A regular seatbelt as well.

Holding the torso in place, especially given the need to maintain body posture is very important. I personally would like the opportunity to test various strapping mechanisms against different body weights, sizes, configurations, and environmental pathways to get to the seat and figure out how these various factors come into play then becomes the issue of the strapping of the legs.

As many people with disabilities can attest you there is no one set right way to position somebody’s body and this is especially true with people who have specificity in their lower legs. Specificity is muscle tightness that tends to lead to a challenge when trying to place a foot on a small platform or train to strap a person’s knees and legs in period this is very important in mitigating harm to the person with the disability.

Because one of the most common things that can happen in current setups of aisle chairs is that people make contact with seats as they roll down the center of the aisle which from personal experience is pretty painful period.

I would recommend a flexible multi point strap system that can be adjusted to hold the individual at the major joints of the body period.

Another consideration that I have seen is that all these different strapping devices have the tendency to get caught in one another. So as human factors professionals we need to work together to identify how we can effectively wrap these different straps with the understanding that the environment needs to be quick release and quick secure. So that passengers can get on and off their planes.

One recommendation that I have is to look into retractable strapping system similar to the huge strange strapping systems which are used to strap wheelchairs into minivans period.

One of the other considerations is that the wheels associated with the aisle chairs often jam and get stuck. And I wonder if there are people out in our community who have experience with keeping caster type wheels from getting stuck, especially since the majority of the movement for the aisle chair is forward and backward, not laterally.

I would like to have the opportunity to mess with and work with some of these wheels and seeing how we can more effectively and more safely facilitate I’ll share transcript last but not least, is the pushing and lifting aspects of the aisle chair.

Similar to some of the emergency evacuation chairs that I’ve worked with in the past some ale chairs have grab handles on the front and some l chairs have grab handles on the back.

However, it’s inconsistent across the industry. The most dangerous time for my experience with the aisle chair is immediately upon exit of the aircraft where the person has to be carried across the threshold of the aircraft comma where in several occasions I have almost fallen because the half weight on one side for one carrier and the half way on the other side for the other carrier is too much lifting for one side.

And so the aisle chair starts to tip and people immediately rush to try to help you from tipping left or right. It’s not a matter of a constraint issue. It’s a matter of a strength issue.

So these are some of my considerations in terms of airport aisle chairs and I’m going to continue to write about different issues that I see across the human factor spectrum disability and not disability and welcome opportunities for boys human performance to support any initiatives to help you address your needs until next time, Michael Boyce out