Surveying blind and visually impaired people about the accessibility and usability of urban parks in Hungary

ABSTRACT

For the programming period of 2021–2027, the European Union (EU) encourages and supports cities and towns across the community to take action to enlarge their green infrastructure and develop and improve urban green spaces. As the provision of equal opportunities is a horizontal principle of the EU, the needs of vulnerable and disabled people are crucial to consider in developments. Using survey data from 102 respondents in Hungary, this paper explores and assesses blind and visually impaired people’s perceptions of urban green spaces and factors that support or hinder them from accessing and using the parks.

KEYWORDS:

• Blind and visually impaired people
• urban parks
• accessibility
• transportation
• Hungary

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the Hungarian Federation of the Blind and Partially Sighted for their assistance in reviewing the questionnaire and facilitating its distribution to their membership.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contribution statement

The authors have all made substantial contributions to the development and writing of this article.

Data availability statement

The questionnaire is available at the following link: https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/Z1ZRYK.

Ethics statement

The Ethics Board of the University of Debrecen reviewed and approved the study.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund [Grant number: K_142121] and the University of Debrecen Program for Scientific Publication.