A research on the evaluation of auditory and visual comfort: an example of special education kindergarten in the western black sea region

With industrialization, people spend most of their time indoors, and this time increases even more for individuals with health problems. Considering this situation, the impact of indoor environmental variables on public health comes to the fore. Children spend most of their time in the institution where they receive education, starting from pre-school education. Considering that the physical environment is as important as the social environment in pre-school education, the architectural quality of the educational structure gains importance. The discipline of early childhood special education is a dynamic and new field of scientific research for developing countries such as Turkey. Considering that intervening with children with special needs in the early stages of their lives is of vital importance, the importance of qualifying the field also emerges. In educational building design, the physical differences of children requiring special education from neurotypical individuals are taken into account, but their sensory sensitivities are neglected. The scope of the study was determined as indoor comfort parameters, and the subject was limited by selecting visual comfort (lighting) and auditory comfort (noise control) parameters. In the study, firstly, children requiring special education and special education structures were investigated and the importance of the study area and group was stated. Then, classroom brightness levels and noise measurements were made around the special education building in two classrooms in a designated special education building. As a result of the study, it was determined that the brightness level in one of the two selected classrooms was above the standard value, and in the other, it was below the standard value. With the environmental noise measurement, sound levels that may cause auditory and non-auditory health problems were determined.