Quality in Design: User-oriented Design of Public Toilets for Visually Impaired People

Kin Wai Michael Siu
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Kin Wai Michael Siu: The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Chapter 22 in Recent Advances in Reliability and Quality in Design, 2008, pp 441-464 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract According to United Nations statistics, about 1/30th of the world's population is visually impaired with different types, levels, and degrees of visual impairment. It is not difficult to realize that visually impaired people (VIP) face different kinds of difficulties and limitations in their daily lives, in particular when they need to interact with public environments and facilities with which they may not be familiar.In recent years, policymakers and researchers in different disciplines such as sociology, architecture, design, and engineering, have conducted more discussions and made increasing efforts to improve this situation. Among the various projects with different perspectives, directions, objectives, and targeted beneficiaries, the key approach is generally to apply technologies to provide convenience, or overcome existing “barriers” to use, for VIP. However, as many of the studies in Europe and America have shown, it remains clear that the situation is still unsatisfactory that complaints by VIP have frequently heard. Mass media also frequently report on accidents or unsatisfactory and unfair environments for VIP. This is not due to the "almighty" nature of the technologies or inventions, but to the fact that these technologies cannot fit the wants and needs of VIP (i.e., actual users) and functions as they were originally planned and intended.

Keywords: Disable People; Design Quality; Impaired People; Public Environment; Public Toilet (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:ssrchp:978-1-84800-113-8_22

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-84800-113-8_22

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