Architectural Barriers Research Articles

Improving wheelchair route planning through instrumentation and navigation systems.

Route planning is an important tool to reach points of interest. The current technology offers options for public transportation and pedestrians on the road and sidewalks, respectively. However, for people who use electric powered wheelchairs (EPW) as their primary means of mobility, the level of accessibility and EPW battery consumption are important during route planning. This paper introduces the concept of an accessible route navigation application to reduce EPW battery consumption. The application, called eNav, uses five layers of information including OpenStreetMaps (OSM), airborne laser scanner (ALS), Point-of-Interests (POIs), public transportation, and crowdsourcing. eNav collects these layers of information to provide the shortest, most accessible, and most comfortable routes that consume the least amount of EPW battery. Additionally, the paper presents the Mobility Enhancement roBot (MEBot), a legged-wheeled power wheelchair, to drive over architectural barriers and less accessible environments. The paper proposes the use of MEBot as a sixth layer of information to inform eNav and road authorities about sidewalk/route conditions, to improve road accessibility, and to provide an energy efficient route planning for non-MEBot users.

Prioritising Patient’s Safety in Hospital, Home and Outdoor Premises by Minimising Architectural Barriers: A Physical Therapist Perspective

Physical therapy is a branch of science which treats patients by means of physical agents to reduce their sufferings from impairments and disabilities. It processes cost efficient mode of treatments which help to reduce the unwarranted burden on patient’s personal economy to a vast extent. Hence, it is improvised to improve the overall quality of life. Physical therapy is been in existence since World War II. Over the decades, extensive research led to advancement in assessment and therapeutic intervention to take Physical therapy to its current stature. In this article, the author would like to concentrate on a single parameter which should significantly be given prior most importance while assessing and rehabilitating a patient. These are addressed as “Safety measures”. Safety concern for patient from the moment of stepping in for consultation to return to his personal premises should be prioritised as they play a vital role in developing positive mental setup which improves psychological wellbeing leading to early disbursement of disability.

Attitude control of an inverted-pendulum-type robotic wheelchair to climb stairs considering dynamic equilibrium

The wheelchair is the major means of transport for elderly and physically disabled people in their daily lives. However it cannot overcome architectural barriers such as curbs and stairs. In this study, we developed an inverted-pendulum-type robotic wheelchair for climbing stairs. This wheelchair has a seat slider and two rotary links between the front and rear wheels on each side. When climbing stairs, the wheelchair rotates the rotary links while maintaining an inverted state of a mobile body by controlling the position of the center of gravity using a seat slider. In previous research, we confirmed that the wheelchair can climb by applying the control method consisting of a center-of-gravity control phase and rotary link control phase. However, it took approximately 15 s to rotate the rotary links during climbing because faster climbing causes the movement of wheels and the wheelchair to fall. This paper focuses on a control method to restrain the movement of the wheels when the stair climbing speed is increased. We realized that the movement was caused by forces acting on the pitch angle, such as the inertial force and the reaction of the driving force. We proposed the method considering the dynamic equilibrium of the pitch angle and confirmed the effect of the restraining wheels’ movement when the proposed method was applied.

Inclusive education as seen by mainstream preschool teachers

Despite the fact that the process of inclusive education implementation has been taking place in Poland for a few years now, it still encounters a lot of obstacles relating to, among other things, the readiness of mainstream settings, including teachers, for inclusion. For this process to be successful, teachers’ attitudes to the idea of inclusive education are also important. The primary purpose of the study was to explore the opinions of mainstream preschool teachers on selected aspects of inclusive education for students with disabilities. The study covered 76 preschool teachers. A diagnostic survey was used in the study. The findings showed that mainstream preschool teachers (generally) supported the idea of inclusive education for students with disabilities to a small extent only (i.e., a little bit below the average). This opinion correlated positively with a sense of readiness for specific tasks relating to the education of students with disabilities and providing it in an educational setting as well as with having formal teacher education in this area. The study also showed that mainstream preschool teachers were relatively most favorably inclined (however, only around the average) toward inclusive preschool education for students with mild intellectual disabilities, and least favorably - for students with multiple disabilities and blind students. The findings confirmed the reports found in the literature regarding significant gaps in preparation for tasks relating to the education of students with disabilities felt by mainstream preschool teachers. They also confirmed the fact that the vast majority of teachers saw many obstacles to the implementation of inclusive education in preschool, in particular relating to: specialists (mainly lack of specialists), too large preschool groups, and school space (mainly architectural barriers). Moreover, the findings showed that only a small number of teachers saw advantages of inclusive education - subject to specific conditions, though. The study findings suggest that it is necessary to provide more effective, specialist support for mainstream preschool teachers in their work with students/children with disabilities and to introduce changes in preschool teacher training at the college level.

Acessibilidade para Usuários de Cadeira de Rodas em Estabelecimentos Comerciais

O artigo visa analisar em que medida os estabelecimentos comerciais de duas cidades turísticas da Serra Gaúcha são acessíveis aos usuários de cadeira de rodas. A pesquisa é de natureza básica, de caráter descritivo e realizada sob o paradigma quantitativo e qualitativo. Foi realizado um estudo de caso em duas cidades da Serra Gaúcha, onde foram analisados 377 estabelecimentos comerciais. Os resultados indicaram que 38,45% dos estabelecimentos estudados oferecem rampas adequadas e somente 1,32% disponibilizam sanitários adaptados. Portas acessíveis foram identificadas em 80,36%, bem superior aos demais itens analisados, porém ainda insuficiente para garantir a acessibilidade universal. Pode-se inferir que se encontrou um número significativo de barreiras arquitetônicas que interferem negativamente na acessibilidade da população local e dos turistas usuários de cadeira de rodas.

Virtual Reality to Foster Social Integration by Allowing Wheelchair Users to Tour Complex Archaeological Sites Realistically

People with disabilities encounter numerous barriers when dealing with the simplest and most usual things in their daily lives. This is even more remarkable when they are faced with archaeological heritage buildings or environments. People with reduced mobility come too often upon architectural barriers that stop them from enjoying their visits to sites and monuments. This paper introduces a virtual reality (VR) experience developed to provide people in wheelchairs with the most realistic sensations while virtually touring some archaeological sites. To this end, the remote sensing of the site enables the production of a realistic 3D model leading to the creation of a virtual world that the user will explore. This VR application has been developed to traverse one of the most important monumental buildings in Spanish Protohistory, the site of Cancho Roano (Zalamea de la Serena, Spain).

Hearing impairment and higher education: perceptions of students and employees in a Brazilian Public Institution

The aim of this study was to identify the perceptions of the hearing impaired students and the Accessibility Center employees of a Public Higher Education Institution regarding the policies and actions of accessibility and permanence in the education offered in the institution in which they are linked. Also, to verify the association between the preferential linguistic modality of the hearing impaired students and their responses regarding the policies of accessibility and permanence in education in a Higher Education Institution. As well as to identify the architectural and communicational barriers that undermines the academic performance of these students. 14 hearing impaired students and 5 Accessibility Center employees of a Higher Education Institution participated in this study. The data collection occurred through an online questionnaire. It was verified that the two groups did not obtained similar perceptions regarding accessibility and permanence. There was no statistical difference between the linguistic modality and the responses regarding accessibility and permanence in higher education. The students report as main architectural and communication barriers: classroom, learning disability and difficulty in following the contents during classes. This research verified that there is a divergence between students and employees´ perceptions. Regardless of the preferred linguistic modality, students with hearing impairment have the same perceptions regarding accessibility and permanence in higher education. The architectural and communicational barriers were identified in the studied sample.

Acessibilidade para pessoas com deficiência física em locais de lazer

A acessibilidade contribui para uma melhor qualidade de vida, pois, através de mecanismos acessíveis as pessoas conseguem ter maior participação social e exercer sua cidadania. Todavia, a implementação desses mecanismos ocorre de forma gradual, uma vez que é possível observar que nem todos os espaços estão aptos a atender ao público que necessita de adaptações ambientais. Um dos desafios da acessibilidade universal são as barreiras arquitetônicas, existentes nos mais diversos espaços que implicam na limitação de deslocamento de sujeitos que têm sua mobilidade comprometida por problemas físicos. Dessa forma, este trabalho teve como objetivo identificar a acessibilidade dos espaços de lazer do município de Santa Maria, RS para as pessoas com deficiência física. O processo investigativo foi realizado através da aplicação de um questionário de autoria de Ribeiro (2014), adaptado para a NBR 9050/2015. O resultado obtido mostrou que os locais de lazer da cidade possuem certo grau de acessibilidade, entretanto, é preciso fazer mudanças necessárias para se adequar às exigências da norma atual. Por fim, é possível concluir que nenhum dos locais avaliados está totalmente de acordo com a norma mais recente de acessibilidade.

Mobility and Sustainable Religious Tourism – Accessibility of Holy Sites

Getting to know the social and spatial conditions of the sustainable development of cultural and religious tourism seems to be an important and timeless problem, because the interest in this form of travel in Poland is not waning. Among tourists – pilgrims there are many people with different disabilities, the elderly and families with young children. However important, the issue of the accessibility of sanctuaries for these groups of tourists has not been the material of a broader and in-depth scientific study in Poland so far, which encourages us to consider these issues in our scientific research. A detailed analysis of the problem, focused on the possibility of removing technical, architectural and spatial barriers in the sanctuaries and in the surroundings of holy sites, seemed to the authors of particular importance in the context of the expected pilgrimage movement in Poland in 2016, in which year the international World Youth Day was organized. One of the assumed and achieved application effects of the research study was the development of the ‘Accessible Sanctuary Card’ (ASC), helpful for the practical assessment of the accessibility of places of religious worship for people with various types of disabilities. The presented paper contains the research final conclusions of the project No. 245 AWF Warsaw (grant from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education undertaken in 2014–2018.

A universal design approach to wayfinding and navigation

This paper investigates the problem of urban accessibility and proposes a system for the generation of accessible paths in an urban university campus. Universal Design has been adopted to explore the different perspectives of the involved stakeholders; an interdisciplinary team has iteractively developed a web application targeted at public administrators and two versions of a mobile app (one for Android and one for iOS) to be used by citizens. The mobile app is able to propose and guide users on paths that best fit their characteristics and preferences; for example, if a user declares some motor and/or visual impairement, the app proposes paths that avoid the architectural barriers related to such impairments. Not only pedestrian paths are considered in the system, but also routes for private cars or public transportation, and thus information about reserved parking lots and limited traffic zones are also managed. The app has been currently tailored to the campus of the University of Brescia, which is distributed in different districts of Brescia, a town in northern Italy; however, it can be easily scaled to other organizations or whole towns, since Google Maps and its APIs have been used as mapping service. Twenty five participants, including blind people and persons with motor disabilities, have been involved in the evaluation of the usability and accessibility of the two versions of the mobile app.

THE ASSESSMENT OF THE ERGONOMIC SUITABILITY OF VEHICLES INTENDED FOR EMPLOYEES WITH PHYSICAL DISABILITIES- THE AHP APPROACH

The protection of rights and disabled persons' safety are the most sensitive elements of social development policy, and also economic and social policy. Nowadays, disability should be viewed from a human rights perspective. One of the problems pertaining to the employment of persons with physical disabilities is infrastructure (architectural barriers) on the one hand, and organized transport on the other. The main objective of this paper is to consider the issue of transportation for employees with physical disabilities, which is a significant factor for providing employment opportunities for these persons in the Republic of Serbia. The overall aim of this paper is to determine the ergonomically most suitable and economically acceptable technical solution using the AHP method when adapting the existing vehicles into the vehicles intended for the transport of persons with mobility impairments.

Thermoresponsive Host Polymer Matrix for Self-Healing Luminescent Solar Concentrators

Luminescent solar concentrators (LSCs) are a promising solar energy technology for reducing architectural barriers to the integration of photovoltaic systems into the built environment. In this wor...

Acessibilidade em ambientes universitários: Diretrizes de planejamento de obras sob o enfoque do PMBOK

Persons with physical disabilities or reduced mobility are often prevented from exercising their right to move freely between the buildings of the federal institutions of higher education due to the existence of architectural barriers that prevent their access to the interior of the buildings and to the free within its territorial boundaries and this includes the AC Simoes Campus of the Federal University of Alagoas. This article proposes to use the knowledge of project management contained in the PMBOK Guide for the formulation of a public project that aims to provide planning guidelines for works that make the main campus of UFAL fully accessible for people with physical disabilities and mobility reduced. The adoption of such procedures serves as a guide for public managers to ensure the effectiveness and management of public projects, and the experience gained can be replicated in other educational institutions.

AUGMENTED REALITY FOR CULTURAL HERITAGE: THE REBIRTH OF A HISTORICAL SQUARE

Abstract. The case study, faced in this paper, arises in the context of Interreg Italia-Malta European project named I-Access, dedicated to the improvement of accessibility to Cultural Heritage (CH). Accessibility considered not only as the demolition of physical architectural barriers, but also as the possibility of fruition of CH through technological tools that can increase its perception and knowledge. Last achievements in photogrammetry and terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) technology offered new methods of data acquisition in the field of CH, giving the possibility of monitoring and processing big data, in the form of point clouds. Ever in this field, reverse engineering techniques and computer graphics are even more used for involving visitors to discover CH, with navigation into 3D reconstructions, empowering the real visualization adding further 3D information through the Augmented Reality (AR). At the same time, recent advances on rapid prototyping technologies grant the automated 3D printing of scaled 3D model reconstructions of real CH elements allowing the tactile fruition of visitors that suffer from visual defects and the connection with 3D AR visualizations. The presented work shows how these technologies could revive an historical square, the Piazza Garraffo in Palermo (Italy), with the virtual insertion of its baroque fountain, originally placed there. The final products of this work are an indoor and an outdoor AR mobile application, that allow the visualization of the historical original asset of the square. This study case shows how the mixing of AR and the rapid prototyping technologies could be useful for the improvement of the fruition of CH. This work could be considered a multidisciplinary experimentation, where different technologies, today still in development, contribute to the same goal aimed at improving the accessibility of the monument for enhancing the fruition of CH.

Organization and systematization of data of people with disabilities: support for networked care

The integral care of people with disabilities is weakened by the non-organization and systematization of information. The objective of this study was to organize and systematize data of people with disabilities accompanied in municipal health services in the context of primary and mild complexity care, in Sao Paulo capital, concerning socio-demographic profile, access to professional care and aiding equipment and service accessibility. It also aimed to establish an association between sociodemographic aspects and types of disability. Qualitative, retrospective, exploratory, descriptive and documentary research were based on analyses of users’ medical records and data from local health information systems. Information was collected on 166 people, 89 men (53.6%) and 83 (50%) adults between 19 and 59 years old; 44 (43.1%) users completed or did not complete elementary school. Of the 102 people who reported employment status, 38 (37.3%) were not working and among those who worked, 22 (41.5%) were men. Multiple disabilities (33.4%), physical disabilities (24.5%) and intellectual disabilities (21.6%) were recorded more often. A statistical association (p=0.005) was identified between age and type of disability, where physical disability was the most frequent among those between 6 and 14 years, and multiple disability was associated among the elderly. In primary care, users predominantly accessed doctors and nurses, and in mild complexity care, they contacted occupational therapists, physiotherapists and psychologists. Among the equipment, the use of wheelchairs prevailed. Architectural barriers were observed in services of mild complexity and there was a low offer of public transportation. There is a need to improve recording information, however it was possible to organize data on the part of people with disabilities, a fundamental action for networked care.

Servidores com deficiência na universidade: barreiras para a inclusão

As pesquisas ainda são incipientes quanto à temática de servidores/funcionários/trabalhadores com deficiência, tanto na rede privada quanto no setor público, sendo necessários mais estudos sobre a inserção e a permanência desse público, relativamente recente, no mercado de trabalho. Este estudo tem como objetivo identificar e analisar as possíveis barreiras existentes no ambiente de trabalho de servidores com deficiência de uma Universidade federal do sul do Brasil. Esta é uma pesquisa de natureza qualitativa exploratória, que se utilizou de entrevistas constituídas por questionários semiestruturados aplicada a quatro servidores com deficiência. Os resultados apontam que as barreiras atitudinais, comunicacionais/linguísticas e arquitetônicas estão presentes nos discursos dos servidores, influenciando em sua permanência na instituição. Revelam que as ações institucionais ainda não conseguem incidir sobre todos os obstáculos enfrentados em suas atividades laborais cotidianas. Essas barreiras ainda não foram superadas, pois a inclusão trata-se de um processo político, pedagógico, cultural e social muito amplo. Romper com os paradigmas segregacionista e assistencialista seculares demandam ações e requerem tempo. O paradigma inclusivo é recente, as leis por si só não garantem mudanças nas atitudes das pessoas, só as regula. É necessário, portanto, a criação de uma cultura inclusiva na Universidade. As conclusões apontam para a necessidade de um acompanhamento/capacitação dos servidores de maneira mais efetiva, de modo que a instituição possa oferecer ações que incidam diretamente sobre as barreiras que se revelam em seu local de trabalho.

The city thought and the city built: design approaches to Praça do Comércio, Lisbon

This paper analyses the urban design processes of the square “Praça do Comércio”, in Lisbon. It comprises two distinct moments in its history. The first moment is about the period in the aftermath of the 1755 earthquake. The second analysis moment is about the late XX, and the early XXI century. It confronts a methodological analysis of the iconography and cartography of those periods, with the current local observations and their spatial visual assessment. The paper has three parts. First, it presents the six proposals submitted for “Praça do Comércio” in the second half of the XVIII century. Another sets of four-period maps are also shown as these maps include also the medieval city designs. This reveals the continuity of the different projects’ ideas for the “Praça do Comércio”. The second part deals with the placement of the D. José I (1714-1777) equestrian statue. This section discusses the placement of the statue as part of an overall plan where the “Praça do Comércio” acts as a stage for the D. José I statue. The ideology of public praise towards the reigning king is evident in this tie-in between the square and the statue. At last, the square’s different functions and uses during the late XX and the early XXI century are presented. For that, two recent projects are analysed. The first developed between 1992 and 2000 and the second from 2010. The analysis of the square designs reveals the existence of a strong connection with the past. The projects recover the medieval square design, both the opening towards the Tagus River and its design, regardless of the different proposals advances and retreats in relation to its form, notable buildings, and dimensions. Public art acts in an unabridged whole with the urban design. This is near to the notion of urban composition, in that the monument transcends the idea of a sculptural object and becomes the entire urban set. This understanding is in contrary to the notion of public art as a decorative element apposed on pre-existing spaces. The urban composition is also in contrary to the idea of public space as an outdoor gallery where the art pieces are independent units without any coherent dialog with the public space. The 1992 and 2010 plans, although formally and materially different, present the concomitant ideas. Both present ideas for the occupation of the lateral arcades of the square as the touristic and living areas. The current project (2010 drawing), much criticized by architects in the media, abandoned the ideas of the previous plan (1992). These included a road tunnel and an underground car park. The 2010 project includes some movement architectural barriers. It also presents a new design for the pavement based on a diagonal grid that leads to a novel reading of the square. These projects, proposed in the XVIII–XXI centuries, show how to interpret the memories, the symbolism and the uses of the “Praça do Comércio”. The recent projects are dissonant about the image of the square, but nonetheless, all projects respect the attributes of its genesis.

A Heuristic Approach to Overcome Architectural Barriers Using a Robotic Wheelchair.

The Mobility Enhancement roBotic (MEBot) wheelchair was developed to improve the safety and accessibility of wheelchair users when facing architectural barriers. MEBot uses pneumatic actuators attached to its frame and six wheels to provide curb ascending/descending for heights up to 20.3 cm. To improve MEBot's application, this study used a heuristic approach with power wheelchair users to evaluate and improve the MEBot application at different curb heights. Wheelchair users were trained on MEBot's features to operate its curb ascending/descending application. Three trials were carried out with wheelchair users ascending and descending three curbs of different height. Quantitative variables were analyzed to improve the sequential steps to ascend/descend curbs. Additionally, the application's effectiveness and efficiency were measured by the number of completed tasks, change in seat angle, and task completion time. Results showed that participants completed each trial and applied alternative strategies to traverse different curb heights. Furthermore, results suggested the combination and/or re-arrangement of steps to reduce task completion time. MEBot demonstrated its effectiveness to ascend/descend different curb heights with a heterogeneous participant sample. Future work will incorporate participant's most efficient strategies to improve the ascending/ascending process and the efficiency of the MEBot application.

The Actual Demand for the Elimination of Architectural Barriers among Senior Citizens in Poland.

The purpose of the study is to determine the actual demand for the elimination of architectural barriers among senior citizens in their place of residence and also in its immediate environment in Poland. The research covered a group of people in the post-productive age, living in the Lower Silesia voivodship in Poland. Different research methods were used in the study, primarily including the public opinion survey based on a questionnaire as well as statistical analyses. The cross-tabulation analysis of differences in quality characteristics was performed using Pearson’s chi-square test (χ2 test of independence) or Fisher’s exact test, when the expected number was lower than five. As a post hoc analysis, checking the nature of differences between the studied groups, the analyses were carried out using the method by Baesley and Schumacker. For all analyses, the maximum permissible error class I α = 0.05 was adopted, whereas p ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The research revealed that a much larger group of people aged 55 and older suffers from mobility limitations than the ones resulting from disability certificates, thus confirming the assumption that along with the respondents’ age, their mobility limitations intensify, resulting in the need for assistance while moving outside their houses/apartments.

Assistive technology based on client-centered for occupational performance in neuromuscular conditions.

Knowledge of the patient's own perception of functioning and dependence, and of environmental factors, is of significant value. The main goals of this study are (1) to obtain a general profile of the occupational performance of persons with neuromuscular disorders (NMD) and their needs related to that performance and (2) to determine the support resources (assistive technologies [AT], adjustment, and/or caregiver) required to improve or maintain their level of independence.This cross-sectional study involved 24 persons with NMD. The functional independence measure (FIM), the checklist of a home's accessibility level, and a specific questionnaire were administered.The sample included 14 women (58.3%) and 10 men (41.7%). A mean of 61.7 (standard deviation = 17.2) was obtained for FIM motor, over 91, indicating a moderate level of dependence. The AT most frequently used was a wheelchair (70.8%). Architectural barriers were detected in the majority of users’ homes (87.5%).Concise assessment of the independence needs of people with NMD, according to their occupational performance, and prescription of resources to meet those needs are required. This procedure should be implemented in healthcare programs, including care to a caregiver.