Access for all – conditions and criteria for accessibility at universities

Content

Karoline Leitz and Katrin Richly – 2 Master´s degree students from the Protestant University of applied sciences Darmstadt tell about their thesis “Access for all – conditions and criteria for accessibility at universities. An analysis of accessing barriers at the Protestant University of applied sciences Darmstadt”.

The aim of the analysis was to figure out the prerequisite and criteria of accessibility and their realisation at universities, because there are still conditions and constitutions of premises and public areas which are constructed in a way that they cannot be used barrier-free. This approach was the background of the bachelor-thesis and research. Although accessibility concerns everybody it is important to act on the assumption that people with special needs have higher requirements. It is important to include these people as experts and their ideas in the planning and design of barrier-free structures.

Presentation by Leitz and Richly. (.ppt, 2,8 mt)

Some useful links relating to the research:
http://komm.muenster.de/komm/pdf/broschuere_barrierefreies_bauen.pdf
A booklet of the city Münster about building barrier- free which was used for the research.
There you can find information about norms and standards of all of the constructional accesses
of buildings (stairs, rooms, toilets and much more), premises and public areas.

http://nullbarriere.de/design-fuer-alle.htm
DIN standards and information about barrier-free building and design principles.

http://www.vdk.de/perl/cms.cgi?ID=de18461
A press release about the new rule about barrier-free building