TURNING THE EARTH:
DESIGNING FOR THE WHEELCHAIR USERS IN ANKARA

Disability has traditionally been viewed as either a medical or a social issue. As a medical issue the community’s response has traditionally been to address the immediate issue associated with or causing disability by medical intervention either in the short or long term. Upon the sufficient application of medical procedures to the immediate or apparent cause of disability, the community’s response to the disabled person is a social, or welfare response, often involving institutional or other care, as a benevolent response, which results in separation of a disabled person from the general life of the community.

While the medical response is essential, and the social or welfare response desirable to a certain extent, to another extent these responses are in fact so limited that they have resulted in exclusion and segregation, the typical responses to disability issues. The traditional community response has been based on a balance of convenience, which often does not take into consideration the rights of the disabled person to full participation in the society to the extent of his ability.

In the developed countries, by the influence of equality on the human rights, the rights and life of physical disabled people are considered to be taken equal actions like everybody. Many services are carried out for those people such as accessible environment, buses, furniture etc. Thought that many activities could be carried out by the physical disabled people if the right things are designed according to the requirements of the disabilities.

This wheelchair user oriented study attempts to identify the factors of constructing the cluster of living style of wheelchair users with functional abilities ranging from independently to dependently and their relevant needs for their living environment.

The study measures the influence of the environment on the activity and participation of wheelchair users and asks what design can do improve the life of wheelchair users. The capital city, Ankara, is chosen as a case for this study.