부산지역 구·군청 시각장애인 편의시설 실태조사 및 개선방향

Abstract

Going through industrialization, the economy in Korea has grown significantly. This, however, have brought about social issues such as the increase of a neglected class resulted by aging, capitalism and industrial accidents caused in the process of the industrial developments. Thus our society will need to put an effort in order to resolve these issues that lie ahead of us. The number of the disabled in Korea is steadily increasing due to congenital disabilities, aging and the increase of physical impairments from industrial accidents. Convenient facilities, specifically for the people who are blind or visually impaired, have been chosen as the subject of this thesis in the need for social supports for rising population of the disabled. Facilities for the visual disability have been neglected, even though the population with this particular disability accounts for the second largest portion of the total that of the disabled following physical disability and brain lesions. The field survey on facilities of 16 government office buildings in Busan has been conducted in this study. To elicit objective results, the checklists have been thoroughly selected by analyzing, charting and classifying ‘convenience improvement for the disabled Act’, ‘Disabled-friendly Design guidelines by Seoul Metropolitan Government’ and ‘A study on the convenient facilities for impaired persons on 2008’. In addition, in order to propose practical improvement guidelines, the questionnaire was carried out targeting the blind who have visited the government office buildings in Busan more than once. The following results have been elicited from the study.

(1) Of a total of 57 criteria used for the evaluation of field study, 49 items of investigation excluding 8 items with duplicated contents on the assumption of possible repeated measurements for sensory organs (residual vision, auditory sense, tactile sensation and integrated sense) and others that affect the behaviors of people with visual disabilities are categorized into 4 visions, 41 tactile sensations, 7 auditory senses, 3 integrated senses and other 3 senses. From the above results, when the facts that most of the current laws and regulations on people with visual disabilities were established focused on their ability to perceive environments using tactile sensation and only items in which there were objective criteria were extracted from the samples of the items of investigation were considered, a perception method using tactile sensation was speculated to be the sensory organ that can choose the most objectified items. (2) As a result of an analysis on the details of the field study of convenient facilities for people with visual disabilities in 16 gu and gun offices in Busan, in the categories of the target facilities (mediation facilities, inner facilities, sanitary facilities and guide facilities), the average installation rate of the convenient facilities for people with visual disabilities accounted for 75% and that of the hygienic facilities was 83%, which was the highest while that of the guide facilities was 68%, which was the lowest. The above results are the mean of those of the 16 gu and gun offices and installation rate by each gu and gun office differs somehow. Based on the above results, the current level of the convenient facilities for people with visual disabilities by each facility could be grasped, and through a comparative analysis on the opening and year of construction of each district office, it was found that there was a correlation of difference between the opening and year of construction of the buildings and the installation rate of convenient facilities for people with visual disabilities. (3) If the convenient facilities for people with visual disabilities by each item of five categories are investigated, the reason for the occurrence of installation rate among the categories can be speculated. Each subsection can be divided broadly into parts of the architectural environment of the convenient facilities and items of the appropriateness for the installation of convenient facilities for people with visual disabilities. Since the parts of the architectural environment of the convenient facilities are the formative aspect of architectural space, they are closely related to new construction and reconstruction of buildings while the aspect of the appropriateness for the installation of the convenient facilities are closely related to the level of the consciousness of facility managers and users. Thus, by comparing and analyzing convenient facilities for people with visual disabilities for the items by each government office, a feasible method of planning the improvement of convenient facilities for people with visual disabilities by each government office could be drawn out. (4) The study based on demands and usability of the actual users of the facilities figured that people with visual disabilities depends more on braille pedestrian blocks and handles outside of the buildings and help from guides inside.

The purposes of this study are to address and analyze the issues on convenient facilities for the blind in 16 government office buildings located in Busan and to use them for future references. Based on the results of the study, the followings have been proposed. First of all, the space planning for the convenient facilities should be conducted considering next 10 years from the new building program. Second, enhancing the utilization of the convenient facilities by instructing the managers is required. Lastly, mediation facility are needed to have guide equipments such as braille pedestrian blocks, and handles and cross separation and elimination of barriers should be taken into account for the access routes. Furthermore, as for the interior plan, guide equipments to the targeted site and proper assists from a guide are needed, and guide equipments to the inside of the building and room for the guide are needed to be considered in the exterior plan to reflect practical demands of the blind.