The world population is increasing while the average age rises steadily. With this, the percentage with any kind of physical impairment is also increasing. Today, a large part of our built environment is planned for people without disabilities. The inaccessible environment prevents people with disabilities to live independently and participate in the society. Everyday activities, such as shopping or visiting friends and family is something that most people take for granted, but is for many people impossible. This divides the population into two: the ones with a disability and the ones without one. To investigate and evaluate the accessibility today, a comparison was made between Sweden and Australia. For this, research questions were stated and answered through a literature study. A case study was also performed to highlight the differences and similarities in the built environment. The thesis is limited to physical impairment and dwellings. Building legislation in Australia is limited to the state of Victoria. Both Sweden and Australia has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of persons with disabilities, but this study showed that there is a long way left before the built environment is fully accessible for all. Sweden has a clear legal framework and standards regarding accessibility in buildings, but yet many newly built dwellings do not meet the requirements. Australia has not come as far, and the current building legislation barely mentions accessibility. Also, the demands today regarding accessibility only needs to be considered when building 20 or more dwellings, where the demand is 5 % or at least one accessible home. This could be showed by the fact that today it is common that people of all ages with physical impairments are forced to live in age care homes. / <p>Validerat; 20150531 (global_studentproject_submitter)</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:ltu-56094 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Olofsson, Lina |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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