The Quality of Public Facilities for the Disabled, Sari, Iran, 2010

摘要

Purpose: Providing suitable facilities for persons who has moving disability and have to use wheelchairs, is mandatory by the law, which has been published in 2004. The responsible persons of all community service buildings are obliged to provide minimum standards for convenient access and use for the handicapped. In this study the community service places of Sari, were evaluated. M&M: This was a cross-sectional study done in 2010. Buildings were randomly selected when there were many samples, however, all were assessed if were unique or less than 4. A checklist was developed according to governmental standards. Content validity was obtained by consultation with experts and consumers. Reliability was tested by the" test-re-test" method (using Pearson correlation Coefficient, r = 0.77). Two hundred and twelve buildings in 5 categories (health care, community service, educational, residential, leisure activities) were assessed by 11-20 items regarding the function and services to provide. The included items were: inspection, presence of ramp, sliding door, lift, handicap sign, reserved parking place, washing sink, suitable bathroom, toilet, special mattress, height adjustable bed. Scales for evaluation were as; existed as standard, existed but not as standard, and not existed. The administrative asked if there was routine inspection visits by responsible bodies. Data entered the SpSS (16) software to analyze data. Results: Seventy five health centers (hospital/clinic/physiotherapy/radiology/pharmacy), 82 community service buildings (bank, post office, registry office), 35 educational buildings, 8 residential buildings (hotels, sanatorium), 16 entertaining/leisure places (cinema, park, restaurant, gymnasium) were evaluated. Routine periodic and formal administrative inspections were hardly performed for evaluated facilities. In most centers there were not any standard slopes. In almost all above-mentioned centers, there were no signs, parking space, and even restrooms dedicated to handicapped. Only 8 % of facilities for community services, 12.5 % of residential buildings and 3 % of health centers had standard slope. There were not suitable beds and bathrooms in hotels. Conclusion: Despite the existence of law in the country and international standards, almost all basic community buildings are unsuitable for the disabled people, yet they are not under routine surveillance. Planning for correct performance of laws is necessary and essential.