| Summary: | 碩士 === 臺北市立大學 === 休閒運動管理學系碩士班 === 105 === This study aimed to explore the environmental obstacles that swimmers with physical disability would face in Tainan City. The research was divided into two parts: 6 public indoor swimming pools in Tainan City were selected purposively for the field investigation, and the snowball sampling was adopted to recruit 12 people with physical disability who utilized the public indoor swimming pools in Tainan City, 6 managers of public swimming pools, and 4 swimming coaches for qualitative interview. The interview started in July 2015 and ended in October 2015. The collected data were analyzed with the descriptive statistics and the content analysis. The main results were listed as follows:
1. Currently, there are still disparities between the condition of the obstacle-free environment in the public swimming facilities in Tainan City and the requirements for obstacle-free environment listed in the law and regulations
The obstacle-free environment is based on the accessibility of buildings. The investigation showed that the facilities with the obstacle-free environment in the public swimming pools in Tainan City are still inconsistent with the existing regulations. The average compliance rate of the assessment items of “Obstacle-free access” was 67.5%; that of “Obstacle-free sign”, 50%; that of “staircase”, 43.9%; that of “Washroom”, 34.6%; that of “Bathroom”, 8.9%; that of “Parking lot”, 12.1%; that of “Seats for audience on wheelchair” and “Pool-entering and underwater equipment”, 0%.
2. The obstacle-free environment in the public swimming facilities need to be improved to increase the usage frequency among people with physical disability
There aren’t any regulation for the obstacle-free environment in the swimming facilities in Taiwan. Despite the strong demand from Building Code and Regulations, the environment and use need for swimming pool are special, which results in the inconvenient use and inaccessibility for the people with physical disability. Consequently, the use frequency of the obstacle-free facilities is low. According to the people with physical disability, the current problems in the use of swimming pools include: the slippery floor of swimming pools and bathrooms, the difficulty in jumping into and climbing out of the swimming pool, the lack of underwater equipment, as well as the inadequate facilities, the excessively high luggage carriers, the excessively small seats, the poor drainage system, and the levelness of the floor in the washroom and the bathroom. Moreover, there are inadequate parking lot, unclear direction signs, and excessively low water temperature in the swimming pool. The people with physical and mental disability hope that these problems will be solved and that there will be an exclusive swimming pool which meets the basic needs (safe, accessible and convenient) of those with physical and mental disability and thus provides them with an opportunity to learn how to swim.
The conclusions of this study were as follows: “Washroom” and “Bathroom” are the most basic conditions for the swimming of the people with mental and physical disability, and such important environments like the locker-room and the shower room can be combined to form an environment with appropriate humidity; “Pool-entering and underwater equipment” influences the intention of use of the aged, the disabled and those who are slow to move. The study showed that many facilities can be improved. It is suggested that the improvement starts with the items which are easy to improve, including the direction sign, the obstacle-free parking lot, the obstacle-free passage and slope. The people with physical and mental disability hope that these problems will be solved and that there will be an exclusive swimming pool for them to use.
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