Herramientas informáticas para la accesibilidad de personas con discapacidad

Résumé

Computer tools for the accessibility of people with disabilities Abstract According to the World Health Organization, it is estimated that approximately 15% of the world population has some type of physical or motor disability that hinders the development of their daily activities, requiring an accessible urban and built environment. Moreover, any improvement for this group of people with physical disabilities is also an improvement for all society in general. This includes the elderly, in a context where their weight is increasing in the population pyramid of the western world; or, for example, to anyone who uses a shopping cart or a baby carriage, not to mention the temporary disabilities to which we are all exposed. Consequently, the main objective of the research carried out in this doctoral thesis has been the analysis of the current situation and the design and development of new technological solutions in accessibility for people with physical disabilities, from an interdisciplinary perspective that unites architecture, urban planning and computer science. For this purpose, throughout the articles that make up this doctoral thesis, presented in the modality of compendium of publications, a series of examples of how computer tools can serve to improve the quality of life of people with physical and motor disabilities, while we analyze through exhaustive field works carried out by FAMDIF (Federation of Murcian Associations of People with Physical and Organic Disabilities) the accessibility to the shops in the city of Murcia, and the accessibility to the beaches of the Region of Murcia. The fulfillment of this main objective is reflected in the three publications that form the compendium of this thesis: " The first article analyzes the accessibility to shops and premises in the city of Murcia from an architectural perspective. This work includes a detailed analysis of the urban aspects that define the physical accessibility to the buildings, the applicable laws, decrees and regulations both nationally and regionally, and an extensive field work in 669 shops and premises of Murcia. The statistical analysis of this study showed that almost 72% of the businesses studied do not comply with current regulations. Disparities were also observed between the normative criteria and the accessibility criteria provided by the users. " After analyzing the current situation, the second article presents the development of a computer tool focused on accessibility to shops and premises. In this way, the information obtained was transferred to a mobile application that allows users to know the degree of accessibility at the entrance of the shops they intend to visit, in addition to geolocating the stores and distinguishing them by use. In this way, the importance of computer tools in improving the quality of life of people with disabilities is emphasized in order to have a priori information, since only a quarter of the premises are easily accessible, 40% of them require access assistance, and the rest are non-accessible shops. " The third article continues the same line of research (normative study, field work, analysis of the situation and development of a mobile application), in this case applied to tourism and, specifically, to the accessibility to the beaches of the Region of Murcia. Universal accessibility is an important factor in the quality of these services, considering that in our region they are a first-class tourist resource, without losing sight of the accessibility to the environment and the tourist destination represented by the beach and the establishments and equipment linked to them. The study of the architectural and urban planning part is reflected in another new mobile application that gathers the accessibility parameters of the beaches and allows potential users with disabilities to know a priori both the accessibility conditions of the beach, as well as the equipment, bath assistance services available, etc. As a result of this work, it was observed that, on the date of the study, a third of the analyzed beaches had good accessibility conditions, while almost another third of the studied beaches were inaccessible. Therefore, all the publications have scientific value per se and, at the same time, they form a scientific unit, following a coherent line of research where an analysis and study of the current situation is made, and then solutions are proposed and validated through their implementation and diffusion. The development of computer applications allows users with disabilities to know a priori all accessibility information, in this case to beaches and shops, obtained by qualified personnel in the field of architecture. The use of mobile apps offers features associated with geolocation, such as proximity search and route query. In addition, the applications make possible the feedback by the user, to allow a continuous update of the information. As a conclusion, this thesis shows the benefits of using the tools provided by technology in order to improve the quality of life for the users with physical disability. In this way, the users of the application have reliable and updated information collected by architects, which allows them to have rigorous data, a fact that differentiates it from other research works in which the information is provided by either the users themselves or the managers of the premises, with the uncertainty that this generates.