THE INVESTIGATION OF MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENTS IN ANKARA WITH REGARD TO TURKISH STANDARDS RELATED WITH ACCESSIBILITY

The main problem in this study is that the handicapped people are not able to use the public areas of public building without the help of others due to the built physical environment. In order to exist in the public areas and be included in social life, every person should be able to attend to public areas and have the right to access the services given by the public buildings. This is directly related by the compliance of these public buildings and their near surroundings to the Turkish standards TS 9111 and TS 12576 related with accessibility to the built environment for the handicapped. In the research made for the M.S. Thesis which is the base of this article, five of the many public buildings in Ankara chosen form municipal services buildings (M.S.B.) are evaluated with regard to the Turkish standards related with accessibility. Data collection thorough observations and photography was made through forms prepared for every activity areas in these buildings to determine the deficiencies that cause lack of accessibility for the handicapped. Through these evaluation forms, the accessibility value (A.V.) for every activity area of these public buildings were determined. Also the general accessibility value (G.A.V.) for the five different municipality buildings were determined. In preparation of this article only two of the forms related with Accessible Route from public transportation areas and the Informative Signage were chosen in as the main focus of this article. As a conclusion the compliance to the standards of the near surroundings of these buildings are not only related with the built physical environments and the architectural obstacle but also is related directly with the topographical status of the building site and the neighborhood and setting these buildings are located. Also the deficiencies in signage with regard to the Turkish standards could easily be refined through minor efforts and should be easily perceptible and simple and understandable by more than two senses and also be compliant to the related Turkish Standards if any of these public areas are to be accessible and usable by handicapped people without the help of others and sustain the design for all principle in built environment.