An Appraisal of the Built Environment for Mobility-Impaired Individuals: Selected Skill Acquisition Centres in Kano and Kaduna State

Abstract

This paper adopts a case study approach to appraise the built environment for mobility-impaired individuals in selected
skill acquisition centres in Kano and Kaduna State, Nigeria. Based on empirical studies, the ‘Design Objectives of Whole
Building Design’ was used for the appraisal of the built environment of Business Apprenticeship Training Centre and Sani
Abacha Youth Center. A mixed approach mehtoldoy was adopted for the study leveraging on primary and secondary
sources of information for the case study; preliminarily, a purposive sampling technique was employed to select the two
skill acquisition centres in which the data collection exercise was interviewing students and staff at the skill acquisition
centres on the accessibility and other features. The data was further analysed thematically related to the study which are
history and development, site planning and landscaping, spatial organization, merits and demerits. Based on the results, it
is further concluded that the built environment of the case studies are not totally accessissble for mobile impared
individuals and that the demand for accessible building should be met while still maintaining and demonstrating
sensitivity to aesthetics and marketing value. Moving forward to achieve equality, the features of mobile impaired
individuals have to be taken into account when providing accessibility in order to grant equal access to all members of
societies despite physical differences.