Atlas City Project

Will the city be accessible to people in wheelchairs this would also make it easier for wheeled robots and unmanned vehicles to get around.

Also we could develop a head mounted sonar system to help blind people navigate the city.

This is a tricky one. It mostly depends on the buildings. Right now it seems that there will be a few residential structures that will be more aimed at this, but the majority will not need to. Not that Atlas will weed out applicants by physical handicap, but it seems there will be a surplus of applicants and those that give Atlas a great chance of success will be first picked. Those with physical disabilities can be just as useful in certain areas of the city, however, so it doesn't eliminate based on any one factor.

We can put elevators in a few design models, but in all would be expensive and high maintenance. We could try to put ramps instead of staircases in some buildings, but this may not work out well for all depending on the slope required. It may be easier to alter the wheelchairs (like robots that climb stairs) then it is to adjust every building.

The goal is to make it accessible, but we still have to think of all options and what will work best.

Keep in mind - if you build something like this in U.S.A. - you will have to comply with all ADA laws, federal, state, and local as applicable. You'd better figure on everything being ADA compliant to the greatest extent.

For further reading on the topic :

www.ada.gov/2010ADAstandards_index.htm

I may be mistaken, but because this is not necessarily for "public" use and for non-profit member use there are not as many limitations. Guess I'll have to read more. Anyone know about this topic?