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The purpose of this paper is to verify whether the horizontal grab bar for the toilet and the bathtub suggested by the Code du bâtiment du Québec conform to users’ preferences. Perceived effort, comfort and safety were considered.

In total, 31 adults and seniors using manual and powered wheelchairs were asked to test different grab bar configurations for both the toilet and bathtub. A questionnaire was designed to evaluate participants’ perceptions and preferences after the trials with each grab bar. Effort was measured using the ten-level Borg scale, while participants’ comfort and safety were assessed with a five-point Likert scale. Participants were finally invited to express an overall personal preference between the two grab bar used in each setup.

Participants showed preference for an L-shaped grab bar for the toilet, and a horizontal grab bar for the bathtub. The authors’ results differ from the recommendations of the barrier-free design standards of the province of Quebec’s construction code, which states that horizontal grab bars should be used for the toilet and bathtub.

This study suggest that despite the limited sample, there is an undeniable need for testing norms for public spaces, whenever is possible and has a direct effect on end-users, before publishing them.

This chapter draws on 10 years of ethnographic fieldwork collected in gay bars from three American cities to explore the strategies LGBTQ subcultures deploy to recreate meaningful places within the vestiges of local queer nightlife. As gentrification and social acceptance accelerate the closures of LGBTQ-specific bars and nightclubs worldwide, venues that once served a specific LGBTQ subculture (i.e., leather bars) expand their offerings to incorporate displaced LGBTQ subcultures. Attending to how LGBTQ subcultures might appropriate designated spaces within a gay venue to support community (nightlife complexes), how management and LGBT subcultures temporally circumscribe subcultural practices and traditions to create fleeting, but recurring places (episodic places), and how patrons might disrupt an existing production of place by imposing practices associated with a discrepant LGBTQ subculture(place ruptures), this chapter challenges the notion of “the gay bar” as a singular place catering to a specific subculture. Instead, gay bars increasingly constitute a collection of places within the same space, which may shift depending on its use by patrons occupying the space at any given moment. Beyond the investigation of gay bars, this chapter contributes to the growing sociological literature exploring the multifaceted, unstable, and ephemeral nature of place and place-making in the postmodern city.

Marketing.

The case is intended for students pursuing post-graduate program in management and studying courses like marketing, brand management and product management.

This case discusses marketing decisions taken by Royal Enfield Motors Ltd for its popular motorcycle brand Enfield. Starting from the genesis of the brand and the company, this case deliberates the stage when it faced the dilemma of whether to shutdown, sell-off or revive the business. The situation was the outcome of unfavourable environmental forces and inappropriate strategies adopted by the company. This case notes how the company evolved its marketing mix to revive the brand.

The case study has been documented with the aim of helping students to: understand the making of an aspirational brand, analyse how a static offer and positioning can become obsolete in a dynamic marketplace, appreciate how pertinent marketing-mix improvements may lead to the revival of a decaying brand and company, learn about the risks associated with entering into a new market segment at the cost of an existing segment, analyse the viability of the business strategy in light of the competition from international players.

Teaching notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes.

This research provides empirically‐based, detailed information on race as a determinant of the relationship between chronic illness/disability and assistive device use by elderly persons. The database is the 1994 wave of the National Long Term Care Survey. The important findings are: whites are more likely to use home modification devices and blacks are more likely to use portable devices; chronic conditions vary in their influence on the use of assistive devices; the joint presence of diabetes, heart conditions or hypertension with ADLs and IADLs motivates greater assistive device use; the relationships between chronic health conditions and assistive device use vary by race; for blacks, income has the largest impact on assistive device purchases; half of the racial differences in the probability of using assistive devices is explained by differences in sociodemographic characteristics and the rest is explained, in part, by discrimination.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a methodology to measure the circulation area required by a manual or powered wheelchair within a toilet stall and present the range of possible results that can be collected when used in an experimental bathroom setup.

A bathroom environment containing a toilet, grab bars and two transparent acrylic panels suspended on rails to simulate walls was built. Three setups were experimented: 1,500 mm from the walls, 1,500 mm diagonally from the toilet and 1,700 mm from the walls. For each of the participants, markers were placed on the back and on the rear of the wheelchair and one on the toes of the participants. The Vicon® optical motion capture system was used to register the markers’ position in the 3D space.

The methodology proved to be relatively easy to install, efficient and easy to interpret in terms of results. It provides specific points from which it is possible to measure the trajectories of markers and calculate the polygonal projection of the area covered by each participant. The results showed that manual and powered wheelchair users required, respectively, 100 and 300 mm more than the minimum 1,500 mm wall-to-wall area to complete a rotation task in front of the toilet.

These results showed that the 1,500 mm gyration area proposed in the Canadian Code of Construction is not sufficient for manual and powered wheelchair users to circulate easily in toilet stalls. The methodology can provide evidence to support the improvement of construction norms in terms of accessible circulation areas.

The paper aims to investigate the key components of facilities management (FM) in care and attention (C & A) homes from the end users’ perspective based on a post-occupancy evaluation method. Hong Kong is a rapidly ageing society. Elderly population may reach 24.3 per cent in the next 20 years, causing an increase in the demand for care services. Therefore, it is necessary to provide sufficient and satisfactory residential C & A homes with appropriate facilities for our elderly.

To collect subjective data from end users, a questionnaire survey was conducted in 119 respondents consisting of both elderly residents and staff of the C & A homes. To further understand the actual situations, site measurements were also used to collect the objective data from the representative homes.

The results indicate that three aspects of key FM components, namely, architect, building services and supporting, all have significant relationships with the overall satisfaction. The site measurements further revealed the actual environment of the seven C & A homes, especially the contrasts between homes with highest scores (Homes E and F) and lowest scores (B and D).

To provide a clear picture to the government and construction professionals, a number of practical recommendations were proposed, such as sufficient space with single or couple bedrooms, sufficient corridor width for two people in wheelchairs and white or pink as the colour scheme in architectural aspect; sufficient lighting, central air conditioning system and adequate quantities of natural fresh air in the building service aspect; and frequently updated menus, door lock and CCTV system for supporting facilities.

This paper applied site measurement on the representative homes to cross-check the quantitative results. The findings of this study can assist architects and facilities managers in C & A homes to improve FM services during the design and operational stages for improving the satisfaction levels of elderly residents.

The concept of aging-in-place has gained notable significance in the last decade due to a dramatic demographic shift in global population dynamics that have considerably affected the ability of societies to adequately cater for their aging population. This paper examines some of the barriers to aging-in-place in the context of health needs, housing design and the role of retrofitting/smart home technologies in overcoming these barriers.

Using a narrative literature review approach, the authors undertook a comprehensive search of recent relevant literature focusing on five core thematic areas: health and aging, aging in place, barriers to aging in place, retrofitting and smart home technologies for successful aging in place. The authors entered appropriate keywords into interdisciplinary research databases and synthesized a coherent narrative discussing the thematic areas using the data extracted from the literature search.

There is a bidirectional relationship between aging and the home environment. Barriers to aging-in-place are mainly related to progressive decline in health, which alters the environmental needs of individuals. Appropriate building designs can significantly facilitate aging-in-place. The authors, therefore, highlight the role of retrofitting and smart home technologies as practical solutions to the challenges of the aging-in-place.

Forward planning in building design is essential to guarantee that the home environment is well adapted for the challenges of aging-in-place while also promoting healthy aging.

The paper shows the relationship between aging and the home environment and how building design considerations could enhance healthy aging-in-place.

The purpose of this paper is to show how modularity manifests in a service context, more specifically in the provision of care and services to independently living elderly.

Four case studies provide insight into the specification of relevant components and their subsequent assembly into a customized package of care and services.

In all cases, component specification and package construction take place in two phases: partly before and partly during care delivery. Early client involvement allows for a combination of standard components that have a lower level of customization, whereas late client involvement allows for adaptation of these components resulting in a higher level of customization. The paper proposes that modularity theory should distinguish between the creation of modular offerings in care provision versus their creation in goods production, since the findings are the exact reverse of the state‐of‐the art knowledge in manufacturing modularity.

The empirical part of this paper is limited to providers of elderly care and services in The Netherlands and is exploratory in nature. However, the newness of care and service modularity justifies the exploratory research approach.

This paper offers elderly care organizations in‐depth understanding of their complex and multi‐faceted specification process. The insights help both care and service providers to make well‐considered decisions as to what level of client involvement to allow and the type of modularity to apply.

This paper contributes to the emerging literature on service modularity.

Although older women are at disproportionate risk of falling and becoming injured, little is known about the effect of falling on their quality of life. In this qualitative study, we examined the perceived causes of falling among older women, identified how older women's quality of life is influenced by falls, and explored how women can be empowered to prevent falls from occurring in their lives. Women who participated in focus groups indicated that the consequences of falling ranged in severity and duration and encompassed physical and psychosocial domains. The women took some ownership of preventing falls in their lives and believed that falls were caused by factors in the physical environment and personal health factors and practices. The results allow us to gain insight into the consequences of falls on the lives of older women, and that older women can influence change by preventing falls from occurring in their lives.