An ergonomic appraisal of educational desks

Abstract

The comfort and functional utility of a classroom desk is a result of its design in relationship to the physical structure and biomechanics of the human body. The educational desk must allow comfortable sitting postures to assist in the learning process. For the performance of different activities such as writing, listening and standing etc., a student has to assume different body postures, which demand contradictory geometrical configurations of the desk. The fixed type of desk whose geometry cannot be altered to suit an individual's anthropometric demands has been ergonomically evaluated in this study. A survey of lecture halls revealed large variations in the characteristic dimensions of the desks. Each relevant characteristic has been analysed and suitable values have been suggested. Where the already established values were not available, experiments were conducted, with a representative group of 40 students, to determine these suitable values.