Analysis of the Accessibility Improvement Index in Urban Areas through Heritage Buildings Used as Museums—Case Studies in the Region of Murcia (Spain)

Abstract

Equality of opportunity for all people, regardless of their abilities, is a fundamental principle in contemporary society. This includes the ability to use any object, service, or environment. The analysis of universal accessibility in the built environment is a requirement to achieve the full inclusion of society as a whole, both in the urban and architectural spheres. This study is based on the analysis of the current and potential states of accessibility, which makes it possible to obtain the accessibility improvement index, a parameter that identifies how much the accessibility of a physical environment can be improved by removing architectural barriers. The methodology is applied to a sample of 25 heritage buildings used as museums to observe how they function. The results show that the feasibility of barrier removal is higher than 75% in all the buildings in the sample, reaching 100% in some cases. The results obtained are contrasted with other works and highlight the potential of expanding the analysis developed to other urban and built environments to ensure full equality of access to the physical environment.