Spinal Cord Injury Center Design Guide
July 1990 (Rev. Jan. 2004)
Lighting 12
Function:
Proper lighting is a necessity if the facilities are to be used after dark. All dropoff and
pickup areas, parking spaces used by a disabled person, and important information
signs should be adequately lighted with at least 5 foot candles of unshadowed
illumination. Critical areas for lighting are steps, ramps, and hazardous areas. The
diagonal projection of light from one outlet should overlap the diagonal projection of the
next.
Requirements:
1.
Lights should be arranged so that they form a single line directly over the center
of a walk, ramp, or stairs to provide a visual path for persons with only light
2.
Overhead lighting tends to cast shadows especially by someone in a wheelchair
and thus may be a hazard by obscuring the surface below. At hazardous
locations, such as changes of grade, lower level supplemental lighting or
additional overhead lights should be used. The light itself should not be placed
at such a level that it will glare into a person's eyes. Eye level can be between 4
feet (wheelchair) and 6 feet. Where walkway illumination is obtained by low
fixtures (3 feet or lower) there must be sufficient peripheral light to indicate what
the surroundings are. Peripheral lighting provides for better security of the
individual, if he can see into his surroundings, to determine if passage through an
area is safe.
Figure V-13
Office of Facilities Management
262
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