Building a Wheelchair Ramp Model With Slope 1/12

 

Building a Wheelchair Ramp Model With Slope 1/12

 

The scenario was the following.

 

Grandma wanted to come see her grandson play high school football but the bleachers were not wheelchair accessible. The students were asked to build a model wheelchair ramp that was accessible to the top bleacher while also staying within ADAs (Americans With Disabilities) building code—the slope must be exactly 1/12 throughout the ramp.

 

The students were giving the following model conversion scale

 

5 yards = 1 inch.

 

Using this, they modeled a 120 x 50 yards football field into a 24’’ x 10’’ football field.

 

Next, using the bleachers my six year old son built for them, they measured the height at 2’’.

 

Using the 1/12 slope, they built a 24’’ incline wheelchair ramp.

 

Then converted these scaled numbers to real life. 5 yards = 1 inch. Meaning a 2’’ height = 10 yards of actual height and 24’’ ramp = 120 yards.