Barrier free communities: guidelines for planning and design.

Provides recommendations for making communities accessible to and usable by disabled and elderly people. It also identifies many marketing and public relations benefits that can accrue from improving access and use of community resources. Two communities were chosen as case studies: Harbison, South Carolina and St. Charles, Maryland. Accessibility is comprised of five elements: provision of necessary facilities and resources, proximity between places, connection between all parts of the community, normalization of use, and full use of the facilities by disabled persons. The recommendations are presented as guidelines for resolving the issues of programming, land use planning, site design, building design, public transportation, communication systems, and marketing. The appendix documents the planning and conducting of an empathetic experience to assist planners and decisionmakers in a community in becoming more sensitive to the issues. A 127-item bibliography including a topic index is provided. -from US Govt Report Announcements, 12, 1982