Park Accessibility
After completing in-person and digital scans for both cities, results confirm that digital audits are a viable alternative to in-person audits for analyzing wheelchair accessibility in green spaces. The main issue with digital scans is the potential for lack of usable data due to quality and availability of coverage by Google Street View. In-person scans allow greater detail in data collection but are time-consuming and are not as cost effective. It was found that the average scores for both methods had insignificant differences, indicating that both are feasible ways of determining wheelchair accessibility in green spaces.
Vancouver Parks:
Accessibility of parks in the City of Vancouver is largely limited by its physical landscape. Legislation of wheelchair accessible infrastructure leads to presence of required parking, curb ramps and washrooms. Nevertheless, parks fall short of addressing bigger picture of wheelchair accessibility, such as having points of entry that are too steep and uneven to accommodate wheelchair users.
Accessibility in Stanley, Kensington, John Hendry and Sunnyside parks was limited by topography. Excessive slopes were present and this may limit significantly accessibility of the park for wheelchair users.
Berlin Parks:
As for the parks in Berlin, issues were not related to landscape topography, but rather design flaws, which are not accounting for wheelchair accessibility. These flaws were represented in simple aspects such as the type of surface, absence of curb ramps and ramps near stairs, and lack of designated handicap parking. Much of the information obtained about Berlin parks are from digital scans, which are limited to the extent of Google Street View for these parks as well as available geotagged images.
While topography is flat in Berlin, many parks lack infrastructural design that accomodates wheelchair users. From lack of parking and curb ramps to abundance of cobblestone surfaces and stairs, parks had a number of barriers for wheelchair users.
