Look with the Eyes of Others: Accessibility in Hospital Environments

Abstract

In Brazil, access to health is a citizen’s right and a duty of the public authority. However, health care facilities, especially those in the public system, are not accessible to people with disabilities or reduced mobility, including patients with fragile health. It’s common for the user of these spaces to abandon their treatment, because they face difficulties to access it. In this sense, the article presents an accessibility analysis in a public hospital, specifically the Ambulatory of the University Hospital of the Federal University of Paraíba. Therefore, a multi-method approach was used that included the recognition and characterization of the object of study and an evaluation from the perspective of the disabled user. Three people with different disabilities were invited to report their experiences, citing the positives and negatives, while the researchers photographed and transcribed the comments. After analyzing the results, it was possible to identify the main problems encountered and to propose solutions to promote the inclusion and greater participation of people with disabilities in the studied environment.