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Vertical rise / Horizontal distance = per cent. of grade.

Up to 10 feet an 8% grade is a fairly easy task for the average patient. One very satisfactory 10-ft.-long ramp has a 10% grade. A 14% climb is a tough job and is too steep.

For longer distances, easier grades are necessary. A ramp 50 feet long with a 2% grade is comfortable going for the average patient. 3% grades are reasonable for distances up to 100 feet, although the patient needs to rest at intervals. A few ramps at Warm Springs are as steep as 6% for 50 feet, but this is a stiff pull for even a strong-armed patient. As a rule, long ramps should not exceed a 3% grade.

For patients who walk with crutches, the above data is also applicable. The importance of a non-slip surface becomes, in their cases, all urgent necessity. Short ramps, particularly, should have rough surfaces. In ramps of wood, planks should be laid crosswise, or if lengthwise, preferably covered with some material to prevent slipping. Concrete ramps should have float sand finish to leave rough surface.

Every winter there is laid over the entry stairs of the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue a sort of temporary passage way, narrow railed and with a covering of wood over the stone stairs which is helped out by treads on each step. It is much easier, by the way, to get a good foothold on a corrugated surface than on polished stone or metal. Skidding is less likely. This device is designed for the comfort of those who use the Library during icy and slippery weather, although there is a side entrance with elevators. At least one Fifth Avenue church has a similar arrangement through the season of inclement weather.

STEPS

In the instances where steps are unavoidable, such as swimming pools, steps with a rise of 6 inches to tread of 12 inches are satisfactory for average use. Treads should be without nosings. Although obviously to be avoided in planning for polio patients, a few steps can be managed by many with considerable ease if a hand-rail is provided. Adults and children require different heights. For adults, a satisfactory handrail for steps is 36 inches above a tread measured on the line of the face of the riser below. For children, 18 inches.

I like to think of the equipping of stairways with railings and the provision of ramps all over the country as something supremely courteous -- kindly recognition of the sportsmanship of a great number of individuals, young and older, who are struggling to get back to work in the world of action from which they have been suddenly snatched. Once the blight of Infantile Paralysis has come upon a healthy young body, the things to combat it are tragically expensive. Effective treatment of any sort must be prolonged and costly. There is need of great patience. Of hope and courage. Of faith. Most of all of plain grit. Splendid gains are being made, but those who have watched the progress of victim after victim know that what may be done is, in the last analysis, problematic.

Here is something which is not problematic, but perfectly feasible. It can be done with comparitively little cost and effort. There is not a single good reason as far as I can see why it should not be done. Statisticians will inquire how many people are incapable of the ordinary ascent of steps. We can assure them that there are at least four hundred thousand cases of Infantile Paralysis in the United States, and that every year the number is increased by the scourge of the disease.

I am deeply gratified to have the support of my friends and fellows of the National Patients' Committee of the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation and to find a competent executive organization like the Committee on Architectural Suggestions with the purpose "to make life easier for polios and other handicapped people." The campaign they are about to initiate will, I hope, make public buildings hard to find which are not easily accessible to people who have difficulty in going up stairs. In the phrase of my own New England countryside may they become "as scarce as hens' teeth!"