A STUDY ON BARRIER-FREE ACCESSIBILITY IN RETAIL MALLS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Barrier-free accessibility has been introduced in Singapore since two decades ago. To date, most of the buildings in Singapore are compliant to the Code on Accessibility in the Built Environment (Code) 2007. However, having buildings that are complaint to the Code is insufficient as buildings are not necessarily accessible to everyone. Building designs should follow the Universal Design and at the same time, be compliant to the Code. This dissertation focuses on the design and provisions of barrier-free features for wheelchair users in shopping centres. The aim is to find out the types of features provided and if they are adequately designed to cater for wheelchair users according to the Universal Design. The hypothesis of this dissertation is the implementation of barrier-free features in retail malls has increased accessibility for wheelchair users. Case study of three shopping centres in the western part of Singapore has been conducted. A list of criteria to be met has been set out by the author to evaluate if the features provided are adequate. Walkthroughs of all three selected shopping centres has been done and the features provided in each shopping centre have been checked against the checklist. The findings showed that while there may be design flaws which did not meet the requirement of the Universal Design Guide, accessibility for wheelchair users have generally been improved. However, the limitation of this study is that the results cannot be used to generalise that all shopping centres in Singapore are accessible for wheelchair users.