Espaços invisíveis, impactos visíveis: análise da acessibilidade e usabilidade dos banheiros públicos em parques de Campina Grande, Paraíba.

Abstract

This research starts from the idea that the urban parks of Campina Grande, besides offering leisure and promoting sports activities, also are instruments for promoting urban equity, because they increase the free access to spaces for leisure, and social living. However, the absence, or the bad conditions, of public toilets in these places can limit the stay of people with disabilities, elderly, children, and pregnant women. The main objective was investigate the conditions of accessibility, and usability, of the public toilets in these spaces, starting from the question: “How much the public toilets of parks in Campina Grande follow the accessibility norms, and what is the perception of users about the usability of these spaces?”. To answer this question, the method used was case study, with mixed approach (qualitative, and quantitative), developed in three phases: exploratory, field, and analysis. The technical evaluation was made with a checklist adapted from Dischinger, Ely, and Piardi (2014), applied in the parks Criança, Evaldo Cruz, Liberdade, Linear Ivandro Cunha Lima, and Ecológico de Bodocongó. The perception of users was investigated by online form, answered by 399 people in voluntary, and anonymous way. The main results showed frequent problems, like absence of signage, architectural barriers, lack of maintenance, and accessible toilets closed. From the nine parks officially recognized in the city, only five have toilets managed by the public administration, and none of them presented toilets fully adequate with the accessibility norms. From the user point of view, even when 97.9% consider these toilets essential, only 28.9% use them frequently, and 33.1% report difficulty to find them. It is concluded that the accessibility, and usability, of public toilets in the analyzed parks are limited, with negative impact in the user experience, who recognize the importance of these spaces, but have difficulties to use them. As the final step of this work, a feedback was made to raise awareness of the society about the importance of accessibility in public toilets in the parks, and also to present the main results to the public managers.