Moving through
Accessible route
public building school hospital campus housing complex
A continuous, barrier-free route from the street or the stop to every space in a building or complex, usable by anyone, including wheelchair users.
What it solves
It prevents a single step, a narrow door or a dirt stretch from leaving someone out. It serves older people, families with strollers, people carrying loads or with a temporary injury alike.
Today
Lay out the route from the first site plan, through the main entrance and not a side door. Keep the width, a firm and slip-resistant floor, and resolve every change in level with a ramp or an elevator.
Common mistake
Making an accessible entrance and forgetting that the route is cut by a step at the restroom, a drain grate or a parking lot without a sidewalk.
Tomorrow
In complexes and campuses the accessible route can be the axis that organizes everything, with shade and benches to rest along the way. Reviewing it with the people who use it every day keeps accessibility alive after each renovation.
Fact In Costa Rica the regulations of Law 7600 require sidewalks at least 1.20 m wide, with a slip-resistant finish and no steps.
Where it comes from
- 1Veterans’ rehabilitation Kalamazoo, United States, 1940s
A pilot program lowered sidewalk curbs so veterans with disabilities could move around the city and work. - 2Barrier-free design United States, 1961
The first barrier-free design standard for buildings was published. - 3Law 7600 Costa Rica, 1996
The Equal Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities Law required new or renovated buildings, sidewalks, parks and plazas to be accessible. - 4Universal design North Carolina, United States, 1997
Seven principles were set for designing environments that everyone can use without adaptation.
Appears in the routes
See also
Also in Moving through
Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.