Usability of Yellow Striped Pavements by Visually Handicapped People in Hatay

The most important problem experinced by visually impaired individuals is inadequacy of opportunities and inequality of opportunities with other people. The yellow striped pavement was made to help distance-place-direction sense while walking, to meet the needs of constant self-awareness to remove a possible accident situation has a very important place for the visually impaired. Our aim is to investigate the usability of yellow striped pavements applied to the sides of the road by visually impaired people in Hatay. A total of 25 visually impaired individuals, 8 women and 17 men, were included in the study. A self-reported questionnaire was applied. The frequency of using yellow striped pavements was found, as using permanently 28 %, using partially 36%, using difficulty 4%, and never using 32%. Individuals who were found that defined the yellow striped pavements as useful 48%, the partially useful 20% and undecided as 32%. The sufficiency of yellow striped pavements in Hatay was defined as 20% adequate, 52% undecided and 28% insufficient. There was a significant difference between using the yellow stripped pavements and helpfulness in walking independently in the street (p<0.005). The fact that the majority of the subjects thought undecided insufficiency of the yellow striped pavements and individuals participated study generally go out with an assistant showed us these striped pavements are not enough. Participants stated that the strips laid on the sidewalks were not felt with the white cane and the strips were too wide and did not serve safe walking. The bad proper design of the pavements, the failure to obey the law, the desensitization of the society constitutes a bigger obstacle for the people with handicapped