“habitABLE”: Web Application to Improve Accessibility in Buildings for Collective Use

Abstract

"habitABLE" is a computer tool that arises from the evolution of the prototype "VIVable, from accessible housing to sustainable housing: the essence of reasonable adjustment", which includes diagnosis, proposed solutions and reasonable adjustment in buildings for collective use, BCU, existing. The initial prototype, VIVable (Public Works Agency. Government of Andalusia-FEDER, 2013-2015), has similar functionalities for residential housing buildings. The objective of habitABLE is to obtain a computer tool that deals with the diagnosis of universal accessibility in the BCU and the proposal of solutions to the problems detected through a methodology based on the automated management of numerous information. To do this, the reality of BCU is addressed in three phases: the use of a methodology for analysing their reality in terms of accessibility in three areas, security, energy efficiency and functionality; the use of a method to propose actions to improve accessibility with economic quantification; and achieving the appropriate balance between the needs of people with disabilities and older people, and the functional and technological conditions of existing BCU. The result consists of assigning an accessibility label to the existing BCU or to part of it, so as to achieve the commitment to enable people with disabilities and the elderly to "inhabit our Heritage" with better conditions of autonomy, comfort and security.