SOCIAL ADAPTATION OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES THROUGH ESTABLISHMENT OF PUBLIC REHABILITATION CENTRES

• Main Author: Tesler Kirill Igorevich
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Moscow State University of Civil Engineering (MGSU) 2012-10-01
• Series: Vestnik MGSU
• Subjects: public rehabilitation centres; friendly urban environment; people with disabilities; social adaptation
• Online Access: http://vestnikmgsu.ru/files/archive/issues/2012/10/ru/5.pdf

Despite the ever improving living conditions and the quality of medical care, the percentage of disabled people in the society is now as high as it was in the past. Social adaptation and accessibility of the urban environment for people with disabilities remains the most important problem of contemporary architecture. The solution is to establish public rehabilitation centres that perform recreational, educational, sports, cultural, social, technological and production functions. This solution is most needed for blind and visually impaired people, because they experience particular problems in travelling in the urban environment. Establishment of the barrier-free environment can solve the problem of socialization of disabled people, because it contemplates all functional processes that they need. Integration of various functional units within public rehabilitation centres helps improve the living conditions of disabled people, and at the same time it contributes to the profitability of these centres as a whole and provides the necessary impetus boosting the development of techniques and technologies required for low mobility groups of people.