Seating: Sitting Pretty

For many manufacturers, providing a bariatric line often starts out with a simple approach, which Debbie Bruenig, RN, BSN, vice president of healthcare at KI, has dubbed the "stretch limo" concept. It is a literal interpretation of oversized seating: simply supersizing other offerings both in scope (often expanding seats up to 30-40 inches) and in structural support.

The result of this straightforward approach gets product to market, but does little to address all user needs, especially psychosocial concerns. "What we were hearing in our healthcare division day in and day out was there was a gap in addressing the needs of the size-challenged population. This isn't just obese people, but also big and tall individuals," Bruenig says. While the supersized offerings on the market technically get the job done, their designs often stand out as seating specifically for users not of an ordinary build, further emphasizing those users' physical differences from others in the room.

"As we started looking at the data and did focus groups, we found that typically bariatric users are immediately aware of their seating options upon walking into a space, probably more so than the average user," says Dan James of Minneapolis-based James Design Company, who, along with Dan Cramer of Cramer Studio, made up the design duo behind KI's successful Soltice collection. Given Soltice's success (which has become KI's biggest selling collection since its introduction two years ago), KI went back to Cramer and James for Arissa, a new collection for bariatric seating. In researching this market segment, the designers repeatedly heard requests for more sophisticated offerings that did not scream "different" when placed alongside other options. "[Bariatric patients] usually would walk into a space and immediately scan the room for a chair that would fit, that looked sturdy, and that wouldn't make them feel like they were being specially addressed," James explains. "They were very specific about the stigma that went along with sitting in bariatric furniture."

The Arissa Collection is a refined trio that soft launched at NeoCon®. Comprising an armchair or armless chair, loveseat, and coordinating ottoman, it's a collection that would be as comfortable in a hotel as in a hospital. From their research, Cramer and James found that larger individuals tend to gravitate toward armless chairs where they can perch sideways and use the back of the chair as a support in getting in and out. James says 90 to 95 percent of the questionnaires they sent out to this demographic came back saying these users prefer armless chairs because they know they're going to fit and they'll be able to get up with ease. In Arissa's design, this translated into a barrel back design that provides a more universal fit without minimizing that ingress/egress support of the back. "When seated, the one-piece construction of Arissa wraps around under your armpit so your elbow falls on the continuous back and as the back becomes the arm, your forearm, wrist, and hand fall naturally on that same line," notes Cramer. "The sloped back and seat allow larger users to comfortably spread their knees, but they also fit smaller users, who can perch up near the front or side without compromising back support."

The design, which also includes triangle rear leg influenced by the designs of Florence Knoll, gives Arissa a smaller appearance so it's not as visually sequestered from other seating options—a perspective reinforced thus far by industry response to the collection. "At NeoCon®, people had trouble believing it was a bariatric chair," Breunig says, "and in the end, to say that it doesn't look bariatric is the biggest complement." Reader Service No. 200