Authors : Ayoub Iranshahi, Meysam Shahbazi, Mansour Mansouri, Farshid Talebi and Farzaneh Parizadeh
Abstract: Growth of ageing population is considered as one of the fundamental concerns of current societies. Elderly people as vulnerable class and social capitals of each society need to be provided with their required facilities and services. Most elderly people are alone and considering their physical and spiritual problems, they need to associate with other people of the society especially their peers. Association with other people of the society and attending urban spaces is one of the most important strategies to improve physical and spiritual power of the elderly and is realized as a concept of successful and active ageing. Definitely elderly people have their own concerns and needs for attending urban spaces. The purpose of this research is to investigate the basic needs of the elderly in urban spaces and discover the most important urban spaces qualities for the elderly people of the society. In this analytic-descriptive research, first, concepts related to ageing and inability and their problems and needs in urban spaces have been considered, then based on standards of world health organization for age-friendly city, the most important criteria for designing age-friendly city public places have been extracted. Finally, using Delphi method and asking questions from 50 experts in fields of urban development, social science and ageing, the most important spatial qualities required by disabled aged people have been provided, based on basic qualities. As a result of this research, qualities such as justice, accessibility, convenient, safety, security and legibility were identified as the most basic qualities of spaces required by the elderly and disabled people.
Ayoub Iranshahi, Meysam Shahbazi, Mansour Mansouri, Farshid Talebi and Farzaneh Parizadeh, 2016. A Review of the Most Important Spatial Qualities in Urban Spaces for the Elderly with Physical and Mental Disabilities. The Social Sciences, 11: 3054-3058.