Improvement of accessibility for the disabled in university restaurants

Abstract

A study was carried out to improve accessibility of the disabled at the nineteen University restaurants in Valencia (Spain) due to that the incidence of the disabled during three studied academic years is ranged from 0.12 to 0. 13% of all studied University student. At the beginning of this study, sixteen of these establishments had good accessibility with a percentage of 87.5, 25 and 6.3 of ramps, elevators and handrails, respectively. Furthermore, all access doors of these establishments are equipped with lever handles or are designed in a way that makes tight grasping and twisting of the wrist to open them unnecessary. On the one hand the architectural design of the other establishments did not take into account the access of the disabled. Subsequent to the preliminary study, the other restaurants installed platform lifts to make access possible. The improvement in accessibility through ramps, elevators, handrails and platform lifts has made it possible to eliminate discriminatory infrastructural barriers in restaurants and has helped to ensure safe access for the disabled. On the other hand, interviews were carried out to know their opinions and one hundred percentage think that the accessibility at University restaurants is better that to the beginning of this study.