Wheelchair accessibility to public buildings in the Kumasi metropolis, Ghana

African Journal of Disability

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Wheelchair accessibility to public buildings in the Kumasi metropolis, Ghana
 
Creator Yarfi, Cosmos Ashigbi, Evans Y.K. Nakua, Emmanuel K.
 
Subject Disability wheelchair; accessibility; public buildings; Kumasi
Description Background: Accessibility implies making public places accessible to every individual, irrespective of his or her disability or special need, ensuring the integration of the wheelchair user into the society and thereby granting them the capability of participating in activities of daily living and ensuring equality in daily life.Objective: This study was carried out to assess the accessibility of the physical infrastructures (public buildings) in the Kumasi metropolis to wheelchairs after the passage of the Ghanaian Disability Law (Act 716, 2006).Methods: Eighty-four public buildings housing education facilities, health facilities, ministries, departments and agencies, sports and recreation, religious groups and banks were assessed. The routes, entrances, height of steps, grade of ramps, sinks, entrance to washrooms, toilets, urinals, automated teller machines and tellers’ counters were measured and computed.Results: Out of a total of 84 buildings assessed, only 34 (40.5%) of the buildings, 52.3% of the entrances and 87.4% of the routes of the buildings were accessible to wheelchair users. A total of 25% (13 out of 52) of the public buildings with more than one floor were fitted with elevators to connect the different levels of floors.Conclusion: The results of this study show that public buildings in the Kumasi metropolis are not wheelchair accessible. An important observation made during this study was that there is an intention to improve accessibility when buildings are being constructed or renovated, but there are no laid down guidelines as how to make the buildings accessible for wheelchair users.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor CEDRES
Date 2017-09-28
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Qualitative Research
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ajod.v6i0.341
 
Source African Journal of Disability; Vol 6 (2017); 8 pages 2226-7220 2223-9170
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/341/711 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/341/710 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/341/712 https://ajod.org/index.php/ajod/article/view/341/696
 
Coverage Africa 2010-2011 —
Rights Copyright (c) 2017 Cosmos Yarfi, Evans Y.K. Ashigbi, Emmanuel K. Nakua https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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