Abstract
The “Normalization” and “Independent Living” for physically disabled person movement make barrier-free environment become a worldwide main stream. In the book "Inclusive Design: Designing and Developing Accessible Environments", Imrie and Hall (2001) indicate that legislation including code, regulations, standards are most efficient way to enact a good barrier-free environment. In Taiwan, the “Disabled Citizen Welfare Law” was first promulgated in 1980. This law was amended several times thereafter, while providing an obstacle-free environment remains one of the important objectives in this law. In order to safeguard the legal rights of disabled citizens and also to fulfill social welfare policies, Interior Ministry modified some articles of the Building Regulations in order to provide a barrier-free environment. However, the society and technology are changing fast, such as the population’s age distribution and the new welfare instrument etc. Therefore, the norms and regulations concerning accessibility should be revised. This research was carried by reviewing bibliographies, investigating of the public accommodations, comparing the regulation with British, America and Japan, and discussing with both specialists and disable people. The research concluded several points as follow： 1. The Building Code concerning of accessible is not good enough to make sure the “full participation and equality “for disable people. 2. Most existed “public accommodations” have some barriers. 3. It is easy to reach accessible in a new building, while it is very difficult to improve an existed building. Therefore, British and America require all the new buildings should be accessible and the existed public accommodations are demanded to make reasonable modification only in requisition. 4. In order to construct accessible buildings for the future and to develop the most efficiency of the modification of existed public accommodations, the research suggested the regulations revisions for both the new buildings and exists. Revision Frame The suggestions will be sent to Department of Construction to apply to revise the building regulation. However, to reach a real Barrier-free life, other public accommodations, sidewalks, parks, public facilities and mass transportations must also be accessible. The improvement in buildings might seem insignificant, but it is a start, a step toward a barrier-free future environment. In the future, we must continue in improving the accessibility of the whole environment. It is expected that by constructing an accessible and usable environment we would be better prepared for the incoming aged society.