Evaluation of accessibility for all in public buildings: Konya case

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2019
Çubıkcı, Merve
Accessibility is one of the significant issues for contemporary societies. Since all people have equal rights to live in an accessible and barrier-free environment, there is a tendency to provide accessible and barrier-free environments which meet the needs of all people in the society. Although an accessible environment is usually considered only in relation to disabled people in literature review, this study examines accessible environments in terms of different user categories such as disabled, elderly, people who carry pushchair and healthy people eventually. Since public buildings are used by more people than private buildings and have more impact on accessibility rather than residential buildings, accessibility of public buildings are investigated. The aim of this study is to examine accessibility or deficiencies of places in terms of accessibility in the Konya case to display the extent of accessibility achieved by the existing legal framework in the context of public buildings. Konya Railway Station, Konya Training and Research Hospital and Konya Metropolitan Municipalities are chosen as case areas. These public buildings are examined in terms of some benchmarks which are developed throughout this study based on the literature and existing accessibility standards. Accessibility is studied under the headings of arriving to the place, entering the place and using the place in evaluation form. Findings of the study reveal that the laws in legislation are not enough for implementation and there are deficiencies. Although the improvements are not comprehensive, the developments and improvements in term of accessibility are not negligible. Accessibility is one of the significant issues for contemporary societies. Since all people have equal rights to live in an accessible and barrier-free environment, there is a tendency to provide accessible and barrier-free environments which meet the needs of all people in the society. Although an accessible environment is usually considered only in relation to disabled people in literature review, this study examines accessible environments in terms of different user categories such as disabled, elderly, people who carry pushchair and healthy people eventually. Since public buildings are used by more people than private buildings and have more impact on accessibility rather than residential buildings, accessibility of public buildings are investigated. The aim of this study is to examine accessibility or deficiencies of places in terms of accessibility in the Konya case to display the extent of accessibility achieved by the existing legal framework in the context of public buildings. Konya Railway Station, Konya Training and Research Hospital and Konya Metropolitan Municipalities are chosen as case areas. These public buildings are examined in terms of some benchmarks which are developed throughout this study based on the literature and existing accessibility standards. Accessibility is studied under the headings of arriving to the place, entering the place and using the place in evaluation form. Findings of the study reveal that the laws in legislation are not enough for implementation and there are deficiencies. Although the improvements are not comprehensive, the developments and improvements in term of accessibility are not negligible.

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Citation Formats
M. Çubıkcı, “Evaluation of accessibility for all in public buildings: Konya case,” Thesis (M.S.) -- Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences. City and Regional Planning., Middle East Technical University, 2019.