Case Study
Workplace design for a caretaker and cemetery gardener

The employer is a church congregation.

The man has a cardiovascular disease or an artificial heart valve. He is unable to lift or carry loads weighing more than five kilograms over a longer period of time. The degree of disability (GdB) is 30 - he is equal to people with severe disabilities.

The man works mainly as a caretaker and cemetery gardener for the employer.

The employee is responsible for the maintenance of the outdoor facilities and for clearing and gritting in winter. The cemetery grounds include a green area of about 5000 square meters with lawn sections of up to 100 square meters, which must be mowed - mowing is also required on sidewalks, grave borders and grave interspaces. In autumn, leaves must also be removed from these areas. As part of grave maintenance, soil and plants must be transported and graves and potted plants must be watered. Mowing the lawn does not cause any problems for the employee and can therefore be done with a walk-behind lawn mower. Due to the size of the cemetery grounds and the length of the slope, it is not possible for the employee to carry waste, soil, planting material and container plants or to transport or push them with a conventional wheelbarrow. Therefore, an electric motor-driven wheelbarrow was purchased to enable transport. This can cope with gradients of up to 40 percent and has an operating time of approx. nine hours. The constant driving back and forth is no longer a physical strain for the employee. He can once again carry out the transport work independently and is no longer dependent on the help of a colleague. Another advantage is the very low noise level when using the electric wheelbarrow, which is particularly important for use on cemetery grounds. Since the almost maintenance-free device is built very narrow, it can also be used on narrow paths and in spaces between graves. For the basic model with the electric lightweight dump body (e.g. for transporting soil, leaves and waste), the adaptive multi-loader (sack barrow principle) and the snow plough blade were also purchased. The multi-loader can be used to transport fixed objects such as potted plants, sacks or water containers, and the snow plough blade can be used to clear the paths of snow without any great strain.

The design suitable for disabled people was funded by the Integration and Inclusion Office.