A research report submitted to the Faculty of Management, University of Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the Degree of Masters of Management (in Public and Management Development) February 2017 / Accessibility in the built environment has always created barriers for persons with disabilities. Accessibility in public buildings is a key factor for persons with disabilities in achieving livelihoods and independence. However, inaccessible public buildings limits the rights of persons with disabilities to equal participation and prevents them from being equal citizens. Persons with disabilities are often faced with barriers that limit them from actively participating in social and economic life. Many of these barriers are related to accessibility in the built environment. This research report looked into the Department of Public Works’ Accessibility Programme. The accessibility programme intends to make all state-owned buildings accessible for persons with disabilities. The participants of the study were mostly implementers of the accessibility programme and participants from organisations of persons with disabilities. Most of the participants acknowledged the work the Department of Public Works has done. However, they also noted shortcomings in implementing the accessibility programme. The lack of knowledge on disability issues and understanding on how to address accessibility in the built environment was a contributing factor to the ineffective and efficient accessibility programme. The recommendations of the study include inclusive disability programmes in the built environment in the planning, policy development, designing and completion stages. Education and advocacy are highly recommended at all stages of the implementation of the accessibility programme. / MT2017

Orientador: Luísa Andréia Gachet Barbosa / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Tecnologia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T12:45:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Silva_FabianaMariada_M.pdf: 2221147 bytes, checksum: acb168d3d261f81f3d6f6d1d25e50816 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: O reaproveitamento de resíduos na construção civil tem sido uma alternativa viável para diminuir o consumo de materiais naturais e a disposição inadequada dos resíduos no meio ambiente. Neste trabalho avaliou-se o reaproveitamento de resíduo de borracha de pneus, proveniente do processo de recauchutagem, em substituição parcial do agregado miúdo natural, para a produção de pisos táteis intertravados de concreto. O piso tátil de concreto é uma peça utilizada na pavimentação, que permite a percepção do ambiente ou rotas acessíveis, proporcionando mais segurança e autonomia para as pessoas com deficiência visual. A substituição foi feita em relação à massa da areia nas proporções de 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% e 50%. As seguintes propriedades do concreto foram investigadas: consistência no estado fresco, resistência à compressão, resistência à tração na flexão, absorção de água, índice de vazios, massa específica do concreto endurecido, resistência à abrasão, resistência ao impacto e análise de microestrutura. Embora a grande limitação do uso da borracha de pneus como agregado no concreto seja a redução das resistências mecânicas, os traços com até 50% de substituição atingiram ótimos valores de resistência à compressão e resistência à tração na flexão e apresentaram melhores resultados de resistência à abrasão. A utilização do resíduo de borracha de pneus, em substituição parcial da areia natural no concreto para a produção de piso tátil, além de contribuir com a sustentabilidade na construção civil, por meio da economia de extração de matérias-primas e redução do descarte e acúmulo inadequado de pneus inservíveis, proporcionou melhorias a algumas propriedades importantes para a eficiência e qualidade do piso tátil de concreto / Abstract: The reuse of waste in construction has been a viable alternative to reduce the consumption of natural materials and the improper disposal of waste on the environment. In this work recycled tire rubber (crumb rubber) was used as aggregate in concrete to produce tactile paving block. The concrete tactile paving block allows perception of the place or accessible routes, providing more security and independence for people with visual disabilities. The crumb rubber was used to replace sand by mass at the level of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%. The concrete characterization was performed by testing its consistency, compressive strength, flexural strength, water absorption, porosity, density, abrasion resistance, impact resistance and microstructure analysis. Although the major limitation using the crumb rubber as aggregate in the concrete is to reduce the mechanical strength, the mixtures with up to 50% of substitution reached optimal values ??of compressive strength and flexural strength and showed a better abrasion resistance. The use of crumb rubber in partial replacement of natural sand in concrete to produce tactile paving block, proved to be a viable alternative. Besides contributing to construction sustainability, minimizing the extraction of raw materials, and reducing improper disposal and accumulation of scrap tires, provided improvements to some important properties that assure the efficiency and quality of the concrete tactile paving block / Mestrado / Tecnologia e Inovação / Mestra em Tecnologia