HOW A CAMPUS CAN BE DISABLED FRIENDLY : THE CASE OF METU, ANKARA

A disabled person is any person who needs various physical arrangements to be able to move freely and without any help in spaces or buildings due to their physical or mental disabilities. They are a part of society and their accessibility to all kinds of indoor and outdoor spaces is a human right to be provided. Those spaces which are used by all society have to be designed with respect to the needs of disabled people too. Accordingly, places for education are also one of the most important places that need to be accessible by all. University campuses, where most of education and social life facilities included in it together, should meet the needs of disabled people. According to United Nations, 2003-2004, the measures that can be taken for disabled accessibility classified as urban design considerations, architectural design considerations, and building types.Therefore, in this study, Middle East Technical University campus, a university in Ankara, Turkey, will be analyzed with respect to urban design issue, architectural issue as defined by UN. The study will focus on disabled people who have physical disability such as wheelchair users, people with limited walking abilities and people with limited sight or sightless. Firstly, a major route of the campus where most of the departments and major administrative, social facility buildings placed, will be analyzed in terms of accessibility to them with respect to disabled people, by looking urban design issues as specific road provision, signs, street furniture, ramps, parking areas etc. Secondly, the accessibility to those buildings and the inside of those on this major route will be analyzed. Thirdly, the evaluation of the major route in campus and the buildings on it will be carried out and the proposals for how a campus can be disabled friendly will be figured out to be discussed