Urban Design
Behzad Rahmani; Hooman Sobouti
Abstract
The major responsibility of urban planning is to plan for all the classes of citizens, resulting in a city filled with health, comfort, and beauty, a city convenient for all the social classes. The disabled face a large number of problems living a social life in cities. It always confronts people with ...
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The major responsibility of urban planning is to plan for all the classes of citizens, resulting in a city filled with health, comfort, and beauty, a city convenient for all the social classes. The disabled face a large number of problems living a social life in cities. It always confronts people with spinal cord injury with problems to interact with the environment outside home and enter the society. Therefore, it is of great significance to resolve the constraints in the urban environment conditions in order to prevent their seclusion. The most common form of disability is motor impairment. The capacities of the environment are reduced in various ways for people with such impairment. Wheelchair users are faced with more restrictions. Some are amputated or paralyzed, others have difficulty maintaining the upper body balance, and most have problems stretching the body. Unfortunately, municipalities have hardly attempted to design urban environments in accordance with the needs of the disabled. Based on Article 2 of the Comprehensive Law for Protection of the Rights of the Disabled, however, all the ministries, organizations, institutions, state corporations, and public and post-revolution entities are required to design and construct/produce buildings, public places, passages, and service instruments so as to make them convenient for everyone with a disability. Sports spaces and venues are considered as one of the most important urban land uses appropriate design of which can play an important role in improvement of the social interaction of the disabled. People with physical disability or motor impairment are currently faced with problems making it to sports venues due to the failure to observe primary standards. Thus, the lack of standard facilities and infrastructures in regard to sports venue and complexes has dramatically reduced their use by the disabled, based on the conducted research. For example, use of public transportation by the disabled and their active, lively presence at sports venues, recreation centers, etc. has been restricted by the inappropriate, non-standard sidewalks, intersections, bridges, furniture, etc. around the city. In other words, the lack of urban facilities and infrastructures to be used by the disabled is quite obvious, and evidence from sample sports centers and interviews with the disabled in Tehran demonstrate that sports buildings and centers associated with the disabled are inappropriate. This research sought to investigate the role of appropriate design of sports complexes in the levels of social interaction of people with physical disability and motor impairment and their social function in the society. It was a hybrid qualitative-quantitative study, combining documentary-library and field research. For a closer examination of the issue, 186 questionnaires were filled out by people with physical disability or motor impairment, and analyzed in SPSS, so that the social conditions of the disabled could be improved, and their levels of interaction could be raised through standardization of sports facilities and infrastructures in Tehran and other Iranian cities. Based on the obtained results, it could be stated that the disabled could not use the equipment at sports venues and complexes conveniently without assistance from others. They encountered problems from the moment they would leave home to the moment they would be back from sports venues, and would therefore prefer to stay home, causing them to suffer psychological crises. The results obtained from the questionnaires demonstrated that design and standardization of sports venues and complexes had direct effects on the social interactions of people in Tehran with physical disability or motor impairment (with a coefficient of determination of 0.85). For improvement of their social status, therefore, projects should be implemented for adaptation of sports venues, public spaces, etc. under full management and supervision of Tehran Municipality.
