Accessibility of Wheelchair to Public Buildings in Maiduguri, Nigeria

Abstract

Accessibility of wheelchair to public buildings can be used as a gauge of the level of societal accommodation and consideration for the needs of  persons living with disability. This descriptive study was aimed at determining the accessibility of wheelchair to public buildings in Maiduguri,  Nigeria. Government and private buildings were randomly selected and their connecting routes, doorways and ramps were measured and  compared to the standard as prescribed by the American with Disability Act guidelines. Each building that had at least a doorway and one or more  linking route(s) that allow a wheelchair easy access to the building's ground floor was qualified as accessible. Descriptive statistics of frequency  counts and percentages summarised the data. A total of 57 public buildings, 45 (78.9%) of which were government, 12 (21.1%) were private  proprietary, and 10 were multi-story buildings, only 10 (17.5%) were accessible, while 140 of 165 doorways (84.6%), 15 of 19 routes (78.9%) and 7 of  13 ramps (53.8%) did not meet accessibility standard. Few (20%) of the 10 multi-story buildings had accessible ramps, and other than one non-  functioning elevator in one of the storey buildings, no elevator facility existed in any of the other storey buildings. The study suggests that persons  who are wheelchair bound may be experiencing difficulty and may have to be dependent on others in accessing educational, social and recreational  services, suggesting that structural barriers to free living by the physically challenged is still rampant in this North-eastern Nigerian  city.