Wheelchair Accessibility to Public Buildings in Songea Municipality

Abstract

Wheelchair accessibility to public buildings is an increasing area of important in research in the field of rehabilitation medicine worldwide, but wheelchair accessibility to public buildings in developing countries is a poorly researched phenomena making the situation unclear. The study assessed wheelchair accessibility of public buildings in Songea Municipality. A descriptive cross sectional survey where by objective assessment of 16 public buildings was performed in Songea Municipality using a standard survey guideline (Americans with Disabilities Act Guideline). Cluster sampling technique was used to sample the available buildings into different clusters and 19 buildings were sampled randomly from each cluster. The overall score of accessibility compliance was 38%.Of the five areas of accessibility assessed, entrance had the highest compliance of 92%, and parking had lowest score of 0%, others were accessible route 31%, ramp 20% and toilet 17% .The buildings which were built before a year 2010 had a mean score of 20.5% and those built after the year 2010 had a mean score of 55.2%. The results of the current study shows that most of public buildings surveyed in Songea Municipal are inaccessible to wheelchair users despite the presence of building regulations and persons with disability act of 2010.The study recommends the enforcement of the law by the government to all public buildings, emphasis to be made on parking, ramps, toilets and accessible routes. The study also recommends remodeling of the available inaccessible elements by the buildings administrators.