Technology is developing day by day and making our daily life easier. We can easily access every service that makes every task convenient. Every advancement in technology is a blessing for human, nowadays scientific methods are used for purpose of convenient life. As in ancient times, physical disabilities were considered as sorrow and risk towards injuries were more because people were considered to bind in four walls of the house and cannot go outside, they were unable to find any opportunities for themselves. In past, people with disabilities  thought that they cannot enjoy because of their disabilities. They were thinking that they do not have a future and they cannot fulfill their dreams.

     At present times, developing technology changed people’s life and their perspective towards the disabilities and people have a chance to prove themselves. Nowadays, buildings are based on new scientific techniques and completely accessible and preventing injuries by having good technical infrastructure. Now people have complete access to all the sources and they can go anywhere to fulfill their needs for example, buildings for all the colleges, universities , organizations, shopping malls are now based on new techniques, which are comfortable for the people with disabilities such as automatic doorways , accessible elevators, have chairs to sit, have reserve spots for parking, proper ramps for wheelchair instead of stairs, floors are also rough to prevent injuries, washrooms are also designed on the basis of needs of a disabled person so that they are able to use by themselves. There are so many job opportunities and educational opportunities for the people with disabilities and have a bright future because of their confidence is enhanced by the services available now for them. People with disabilities have the highest level of moral and have guts to fulfil the dreams.

     In this assignment is about Accessibility Assessment of Public Building and check the building with various aspects. I checked that whether disable like physically disable, blind people, deaf, dumb, mentally retarded people, wheelchair person can access the building in all ways or not.

     I went to Metropolis at Metrotown, it’s at 4700 Kingsway, Burnaby in Lower Mainland. Metropolis at Metrotown is the biggest shopping mall in British Columbia. It is a third largest shopping mall in Canada. Metropolis has 360 stores under one roof having varieties of the clothing brand, boutiques, jewellery brands, shoe brands, sweet shops, electronics, home furnishing grocery stores such as Superstore, T&T, Walmart. Metropolis has Grand court, Atrium court, Food court and has customer service stations. There are customer service stations where people can rent a stroller for the kids and wheelchair are provided for free to have around the store and have a space for charging the electric vehicle during the opening hours. For the enjoyment of the public, there are so many events are going on always and it also has Famous Players Silver City to play box office hits.  Every year millions of shoppers are shopping in it. Metropolis mall’s infrastructure is based on modern technology to make it accessible for everyone so that everybody can shop and enjoy without any restrictions. Metropolis has 3D indoor map to have look for the stores to find stores quickly. It is easily commutable as SkyTrain station is in front of the mall, number of bus routes which are available near the mall. Moreover, the parking lot also very wide for a private vehicle. Metropolis has one large building.

Surrounding Area

In front of the Metropolis mall, there is a Sky Train Station, where lifts are easily accessible by the person with a disability like for wheelchair, lifts and escalators on both exits of Sky Train station to go upstairs and downstairs (refers photo 1). At Sky Train Station there are proper pay zones to pay the fare for the person on a wheelchair (refers photo 2). Furthermore, proper sitting arrangement for the old age people. Sky Trains are easily accessible and quickly available through which everyone can commute and inside the Sky Train, there are priority seats available for older people and for people with disabilities. There are almost ten bus stops where buses are coming and going after every 10 minutes. All the buses are easily accessible by a person with a disability like, have wheelchair seating with proper binding belts to prevent from moving wheelchair during boarding the bus and there is space for the kid’s strollers, so kids can also be safe. When we exit the SkyTrain station there are just two minutes walk to Metropolis mall bypassing the road. On the road, there are proper signal lights for safe crossing the road for people with or without disabilities and there is little bit sliding on the sidewalk on the intersection where people cross one side to another side so that wheelchairs can go easily without having any trouble for the people with disabilities. Traffic control police are there for maintaining and looking for safe driving and crossing the road as it’s a busy road. As its a very busy road and sidewalks are also crowdy, the sidewalks are very wide, safety and prevention from the injuries for people with disabilities and without disabilities. Vancouver’s weather is always fluctuating and mostly rainy for the safety bus shelters are available and accessible for everyone. There is a proper walkway in form of the ramp from the road to the entrance of the mall if a person having difficulty with walking can easily.

Outside of the complex

     After crossing the road there is a ramp and stairs as well to go inside the mall, wheelchair person can use the ramp, and another can also use the stairs. Ramp and stairs are made properly so that the chance of getting any injury going to be less. Material that is used for ramp and stairs is not slippery. Furthermore, there are parking lots on sides of the mall having many numbers of floors and on every floor, there are clear paths to drive and park your car in the parking lot. Parking lots are well equipped with fire extinguishers so that in case of fire a person can use that for their safety, parking  lot’s floor is also made of material that saves a person from falling Parking is free for four hours and after every four hours security will checking all parking  lots, for the public convenience its well maintained and the paid parking corner is separate. For the physically disabled or person with a wheelchair, there is a separate reserved parking in the parking lot. Moreover, reserved parking lots have a proper sign to notice that it’s reserved for the person using a wheelchair if somebody parked in reserved parking without having any disability will be fined for that. Security is always present and keeps walking in the parking lots for helping the people with disabilities. If any person with disabilities need help security guards can assist them. Moreover, there is a number of doorways for entrance and exits. These multiple doors can prevent injuries n a crowded area. Some of the doors are manual for the person without disabilities and some are on a switch controlled for the accessibility for the people with the disabilities so, that they can go inside or outside without getting any injury and without anybody’s help to do this. Metropolis have various exits such as a number of doors are though parking lots, there are many doorways from the Sky Train station and have a sidewalk for safety o the side -walkers on one side. At every entrance or exit, there are proper signs to be safe and have a safe walk. All the doors are accessible for every person to use. The ramps are properly managed for the safe walk and for the less risk of the injuries. As signs are very important for going anywhere and having proper accessibility for the services. Outside the complex, there are proper benches to sit on it, for old age people like they cannot stand for a long time they can sit there and enjoy the fresh environment. Traffic lights are in front of the mall where there are wider length sidewalks (refers photo 3)

Inside of the Complex

     At the entrance of the Metropolis, there are proper mats which are rough and non-slippery to prevent injuries to clean the wet and dirty shoe as in rainy weather everything become messy to maintain the floor cleanliness mats are necessary. There are also umbrella bags available for the wet umbrella to prevent the floor from getting wet and do not have a risk of ay injury or any kind of spills on the floor. Inside the mall, there is a number of elevators to have a walk on all the floors. There are speakers inside the elevators, for people who have eye defects or blind are able to reach their destination quickly and Braille is used to reading the floor numbers inside the elevators for guidance of the floors and opening and closing of the elevator, there is also an emergency call button in case of an emergency , it is helpful the for people who have physical disabilities (refers photo 4). Moreover, a number of escalators are available for going upstairs and downstairs. These are especially useful for the elder people and they can also use the elevator.

On the escalators, there is an emergency button to use in an emergency for example if anybody fall or in case of an accident which requires to stop the escalators. The escalator’s surface is non-slippery to prevent the injuries and starting and ending surface of escalators are also non-slippery for the safety. Washrooms are also designed to the basis of every person’s needs, washrooms are more spacious as a mall is a public place and always have crowed in it, on every floor, there are multiple washrooms. Every washroom has a special room for the people with disabilities such as in those washrooms there are pipes to hold and sit comfortably, they can also get their wheelchairs in because washrooms are spacious to fit the wheelchair in (refers photo 5). The level of water taps, soap, and dryer are also on reachable height so that people on wheelchair and kids can also use. Hygienic conditions are maintained by the cleaners by time to time cleanup of the washrooms. In the washrooms, there is also emergency pull button to get help in case of fire or fall. There are also a special room for babies called parent washroom, where specialized seats for babies to change their diapers etc. There are customer service stations on every floor to help and completely accessible, customer service desks are available during the mall is open. Customer service officers are available for finding the direction to any specific store, in case of emergency they are available in the evacuation, they can also provide the map of the mall, so someone can go quickly on any store where they want to go. Moreover, if anybody lost or found something they can report to customer service to get and return the lost things in the mal. As Metropolis is a larger mall it needs security for any kind of miss happening or thefts, security is 24 hours available, a number of security guards are always walking inside the mall, security guards are helpful to know about the mall and also helpful calling medical services if anybody is unable to do so. Security guards also knows all the ways, to reduce the risk of injuries for example, in case of emergency they are very helpful for the evacuation because they know more about mall than common people know about it and they have keys for the every door of the mall to open when they needs to be open. Furthermore, floors are rough because the floor is made-up of non-slippery tiles to prevent the injuries and have proper clear pathways for the wheelchairs. There are cleaners to clean any mess on the floor like they must clean right away the if any kind of spills on the floor to prevent injuries. On the other hand, there are multiple fire exits on every floor with having proper switches on them and proper signs on these for the exit and always empty so that during the emergency evacuation is possible, fire alarms set up for an indication that an incident is happened. In case of evacuation, stairs are used instead of elevators or escalators for people using a wheelchair are evacuated by firefighters safely. In the Metropolis mall there are proper seating for old age people or people with disabilities to take rest as we know that they get tired shortly. There are proper garbage bins to throw things, because if someone throw things on the floor there will be chances of injuries. In the food court there are proper table sitting arrangement for people with disabilities, for example, people using a wheelchair have a special table to use. For the kids, they have proper table heights so that they do not fall. In stores, things are on proper height and if something is on height helper will be there to get the things. Moreover, entrance floor of all stores are not low or high they are on the same level of mall’s floor and walkways to take a round of store are made on the basis of need of physically disable people too, so that people who are using a wheelchair can easily go inside and do shopping.

Summary

     I am working Walmart, which is inside the Metropolis mall, but I never thought about the accessibility concept, like previously, I saw all the things daily, but I never thought about these that why or for whom and how these things are considered. Now, I learned a lot of things by doing this assignment, this experience changed my perspective of viewing a building, now wherever I am going, I am looking for the accessibility services. The assignment helped me to see the world through the eyes of disabled people. As I am working in the mall, I am always going there for work and now, I know about all the services and I can help any disabled person using these services. I know that what steps to take in case of emergency. In case of an emergency, I can exit the building safely and assist the other people as well. Because, now, I know the most useful services. Now, I know about the staff at mall that, I can take help from security guards and customer service officer during the emergency actions and know about their roles in safety and prevention of injuries. Moreover, now I can distinguish the signs that what the signs are indicating like for reserved parking, in washrooms, in elevators and about the priority signs. I am happy that people do not have any limits for their enjoyment.

Here is appendix attached on the page below: – Accessibility Checklist