THE PROBLEMS CONFRONTED BY THE DISABLED PEOPLE IN FOOD AND BEVERAGE FACILITIES AND SOLUTION SUGGESTIONS

Abstract

The people with disabilities, whose number is about 8.7 million in Turkey, confront with some problems at food and beverage facilities from entering to exiting. However they have the right to make use of these facilities as much as every single healthy person. This study presents the determination of handicapped people’s problems at food and beverage facilities and the evaluation of spatial design of food and beverage facilities with regard to disabled people. The data was collected via a questionnaire conducted with 287 orthopedically handicapped, visually handicapped, speech handicapped and hearing impaired people. As a result of this study, it was determined that handicapped people had problems mostly with entrance doors, ramps, objects like flowerpots and schematic factors like lighting at food and beverage facilities and also it was found out that there was a statistically significant difference between the problems and the disability of the person and visit frequency.