Determination of the parameters that affect the spatial legibility of the visually impaired people

According to the 2010 global population estimates of the World Health Organization, more than a billion people live with some form of disability (or approximately 15% of the world's population). This rate is 12.29% in Türkiye. The rate of people with visual impairments in Türkiye among the total population is 0.6%. Due to the problems of physical accessibility, visually impaired people cannot take their place in the social life.According to the Universal Design Principle which was put forward in the United States in the 1980s and spread worldwide, that every member of society should equally benefit from all the sources of the society.Individuals who benefit from education, employment and health care and having a place in social life are related to the accessibility of the built environments created by architects and designers. Using a number of technological solutions to overcome problems arising from designing and lack of structural details or errors are caused by lack of design. In addition, if the technological solutions are personal, a person who does not have the related device will be left out of the solution.Although accessibility is considered to be a ramp and a lift for people in wheelchairs, there should be guided paths, voice guidance, warning systems, colour tones, lighting levels, etc., for the visually impaired people. All these details are for the visually impaired individuals in order to let them move independently in the venue.Like the people who can see, visually impaired people should also have the comfort of knowing where he is and where he is going so that he can move independently. Independence of the individual is only related to the perception of the place. People who have spatial legibility are independent no matter if he is blind or not.It is a must to research the criteria related to the spatial legibility of the visually impaired person within the plan layout and positive effects of cognitive mapping abilities on the environmental and spatial design.In this study, it is aimed to suggest the architect some specific criteria during the architectural designing stage. Accessibility especially in public places is very important, with the measures taken by the designer in the planning stage there will be both more economical solutions and accessibility for everyone.In the study an experiment was carried out with 14 visually impaired people in two different shopping malls with different plans chosen as public places. Their movements were observed in certain routes and their narrating and drawings were recorded to test their cognitive mappings, afterwards numerical data of the plans of the same place were obtained with axial line analysis and visibility graph analysis of the space syntax.While researching the effect of the plan scheme in the spatial legibility of the visually impaired person, the effects of the locations and qualities of the landmark knowledge and the places appealing to multiple senses are also discussed. It is only possible for visually impaired to read the space when the details that can help in the formation of cognitive maps are applied. Therefore, the criteria that laid down with this study are important parameters that affect the mapping. The study not only presents certain criteria with its results, but also aims to draw attention to the issue in architectural studies, to open new discussions by researchers on the main idea with different criteria and to ensure to do researches.