ACCESSIBILITY FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IN URBAN SPACES: A Case Study of Ankara, Turkey

Abstract

The number of people with disabilities who can move without help is quite low in the urban spaces. This significantly indicates the extent to which disabled people’s participation in urban and social life is low, and opportunities for them to move independently are constrained. The aim of this article was to determine the problems of people with disabilities encountered in urban areas. Limited accessibility for people with disabilities to the services offered in urban spaces, due to the architectural obstacles that result from the built environment, was put forward as the main problem. Issues such as accessibility for people with disabilities to the physical space, using the space and leaving the space, the limitations in terms of accessibility and the problems encountered within urban spaces were elaborated on. The current situation in the streets of the Kizilay city centre, Ankara, was observed, in order to determine whether the accessibility standards had been applied in an urban space. Orthopedically and visually impaired people who can be considered to encounter more obstacles in using urban spaces when compared with other impairment groups, constituted the field study group. According to the results of the field study, it was confirmed that the design standards for people with disabilities were not taken into account in the sample field.