Dissertação
Acessibilidade e mobilidade nos passeios públicos da cidade de Santa Maria, RS
Fecha
2022-10-07Autor
Müller, Ana Paula Soares
Institución
Resumen
Based on the consideration that, when moving around cities, all individuals are
pedestrians at some point of the way, accessibility is a fundamental characteristic to
ensure the mobility of all people through pedestrian spaces. However, problems and
obstacles are often observed in the infrastructure of public sidewalks and crosswalks
with regard to accessibility, which can mean usage and mobility limitations and
impediments for people, especially those with disabilities. In the city of Santa Maria
the reality is no different, and knowing the conditions of sidewalks, focusing on
accessibility, is essential in order to allow people with disabilities to use them
autonomously, safely, comfortably, and in equal conditions with other people.
Therefore, the proposed research aims to evaluate the accessibility of sidewalks and
crosswalks in the central region of the city to ensure mobility and equal use by
people with physical, visual, and hearing disabilities. Understanding the perception of
the target audience, through survey and accompanied walks, and knowing the
characteristics of the public sidewalks and crosswalks in the city center, through site
mapping with an evaluation checklist, it is expected to grade the conditions that most
affect the accessibility of these places for these people, generating accessibility
indexes and promoting improved access and social inclusion. According to the
results obtained, the survey and the accompanied walks revealed the negative and
dissatisfied perception of people with disabilities who circulate on the sidewalks in the
region, highlighting the problems and obstacles of accessibility that they observe in
these places. The evaluation checklist allowed to identify the mostly precarious
conditions of these spaces, including sidewalk with holes and unevenness, lack of
tactile paving, furniture and urban elements blocking the circulation, and crosswalks
and curb ramps in bad conditions. Through the classification of problems and
obstacles and the elaboration of accessibility indexes for sidewalks and crosswalks, it
was also possible to identify the low level of accessibility that these spaces offer in
the perception of people with disabilities, highlighting the lack of accessibility in these
places. Hence, the importance of ensuring accessibility in circulation spaces for the
mobility of pedestrians with disabilities is highlighted, and it is hoped that the results
found in this study will foster the discussion and reflection about this issue.