Case Study
Barrier-free design for a person to be depicted at the tax office

This is a tax office with 375 employees.

The woman has ataxia due to damage to her cerebellum, a spinal disorder and weak arm muscles. She is dependent on the use of a power wheelchair. Her motor skills and coordination of movement, reach and mobility are restricted due to her disability. The GdB (degree of disability) is 100.

The woman was newly employed and is completing a three-year vocational training or dual course of study to become a qualified finance administrator. The dual course of study includes practical and theoretical content. The practical part takes place at the tax office, while the theoretical content is taught at the University of Applied Sciences for Finance. The management of the tax office assumes that the trainee will be taken on as a permanent employee and assigned to the tax office after successfully completing her training.

As part of her training and later in her career, she will be involved in processing financial matters such as income tax returns, tax laws and company audits.

Her mother will take the trainee to and from the tax office every day. There is a wheelchair ramp at the main entrance to the building, which she can use to reach the front door. To enable her to access the building and move around independently, all doors have been equipped with automatic swing door drives and control via motion detectors. To prevent people from being injured by a collision when opening and closing, a sensor strip was fitted to the top of the doors to safeguard the opening and closing area.
The fire doors it passes through on its way were equipped with a specially approved swing door drive. By actuating the large switches installed in the restricted reach area and at a satisfactory distance from the fire doors, the fire doors can be opened automatically by a motor. They are then closed by a spring in the door drive, which is tensioned during opening and closes the fire doors in accordance with regulations even in the event of a power failure. In the event of a fire, the automatic opening system is deactivated by the signal from a smoke detector and the closed doors can only be opened manually. The fire doors can only be opened again automatically once the smoke detectors have been reset. A notice was affixed to all doors indicating that the doors open and close automatically.
In the lift area, buttons for requesting the lift were installed on each floor as well as an additional horizontally arranged switch panel in the lift, within the trainees' reach.

The design suitable for disabled people was funded by the employment agency. Advice was provided by the employment agency's technical advisory service.