Dubai, a disability friendly city in the making An investigative study
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Date
2016-09
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Publisher
The British University in Dubai (BUiD)
Abstract
Dubai claims that by 2020 it will be a people with disability friendly city. It was important to examine the following aspects; first the extent to which the city serves people with disability at this crucial stage, second the way Dubai’s current built environment is serving people with disability and finally codes and regulations and how they reflect on Dubai development plans. The aim of this research is to bridge the gap in an area that is much needed specifically in the presence of such a pioneering initiative that is referred to as “my community”. Pursuing the achievement of this study’s aims, a set of mixed research methods are used including semi structured interviews, observations of some of the current and plans of future built environment projects, as well as detailed data analysis of Dubai building codes and regulations. The study discusses several obstacles that were encountered during the period of the research, moreover a series of limitations that were associated with subject study. The findings showed a clear gap in what is currently offered for people with disability in such vibrant city and what is expected to be achieved by 2020, furthermore the study showed issues with alignment of local, federal and international codes and regulations. A set of recommendations for future practice are offered to help fellow designers, planers, stake holders and decision makers to support such category of society to fully function independently.
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Keywords
disability friendly city, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE)