Environmental Accessibility Assessment for People with Vision, Hearing and Speech Disabilities in Mongolia

Abstract

Purpose : The main objective of this paper was to assess environmental accessibility for people with vision, hearing and speech disabilities in Mongolia, with particular focus on public buildings and public transportation. Methods : A standardised internationally-used questionnaire, consisting of 29 questions, was used for the accessibility of public buildings assessment.  The questionnaire results were grouped into categories and descriptive statistics were obtained. To determine quality and accessibility to public transportation a standardised sheet, consisting of 51 questions from the internationally accepted SERVQUAL, was used. This model is commonly used for measurement of the discrepancies between actual performance and customer expectations. Result : Assessment of public buildings in Mongolia revealed that they were moderately accessible for people with vision, hearing and speech disabilities. The assessment of public transportation found that the discrepancy between actual performance and customer expectation is the highest across all indicators for people with hearing and speech impairments. Conclusion: The research findings indicated a strong need to pay closer attention to the current environmental unfriendliness and inaccessibility faced by people with vision, hearing and speech disabilities.