Accessibility of disabled people on pedestrian ways of Duzce city centre

There are certain differences of needs in the participation of urban life between physically disabled people and people with no disabilities. Due to natal or post-natal disabilities, physically disabled individuals encounter some problems in participation of the community life. Thus, urban spaces should be arranged to fit the needs of both user types to make sure that physically disabled people can feel more comfortable, integrate into the society and spend more time outdoors. This study aims primarily to determine the constraints that hinder physically disabled people to access urban spaces. Determined constraints would be put to use in surveys carried out with physically disabled people to demonstrate the current physical conditions of pedestrian ways. Space Syntax (spatial index method) is used within the scope of the study to determine the potential pedestrian ways with high pedestrian traffic in Duzce city centre and the observation form created was assessed by the experts. In addition to that surveys were conducted with 138 randomly chosen physically disabled people who visited Duzce province at least once. Frequency and one-way variance analyses were carried out with the help of SPSS 20 statistical analysis program. Observation form and the survey form were compared. The aim was to determine deficiencies of the criteria if there would be a significant relationship between them, so that they can be based on certain standards as a basis for future studies and it would also demonstrate the quality of accessibility. Consequently, existing pedestrian roads in Duzce city centre were assessed, and it was revealed that necessary designs were not carried out to enable accessibility of physically disabled or arrangements made were insufficient. Results of comparing the observation data and survey revealed overlapping user expectations. Besides that, the applicability of the observation form in terms of accessibility of physically disabled is detected.