Heritage Accessibility: an assessment tool for design strategies

The research, developed during the Ph.D. Course in Civil and Architectural Engineering of the University of Pavia (Italy), aims to define a tool to assess the accessibility level of the historical buildings, taking into consideration the needs of disable people. The accessibility assessment tool breaks down the building into indicators and parameters objectively measurable and gives, as final result, the building accessibility class in relation both to mobility impaired people (M) and to visually impaired people (V). The tool has several purposes: to let users organize the visit according to their own capabilities; to give designers a detailed checklist and identify the most critical points on which it is necessary to intervene developing inclusive solutions to overcome physical and sensorial barriers and enhance the historical values of the building. The tool, developed using the software Microsoft Excel, arises in relation to the historical universities and it is also flexible to buildings with different functions and placed in different contexts. This tool, encouraging the assessment and the development of the accessibility issues in respect of the historical values, can concretely represent one of the means to improve the quality and the culture of the historical heritage for all people