Selected issues in universal design of yachts for people with disabilities

This paper presents the general principles of building a sailing yacht designed for people with multiple disabilities. Specific requirements for the crew on such vessels have been stressed. A lot of attention has been given to the possible disabilities of the design subjects and accessibility of the new yacht. The universal design method has been adopted to enable meeting ergonomic and rehabilitation requirements. We discuss selected stages of the design process: problem analysis, yacht construction and equipment. We discuss the influence of the type of disability on yacht use, in detail. Two tasks have been combined, that of a sailor with disabilities and that of a yacht. Both of them need to be taken into account in the socio-technical ‘sailor with disabilities - yacht’ system. A set of required yacht adaptations has been developed to meet the relationships in this system. Typical dangers in sailing on the Empatia 60 FD yacht are further enumerated. We provide a set of design rules for constructing dedicated yachts for the disabled and their practical use.