The Current Status of Accomodations for the Disabled Children in Elementary Schools of Suwon City

장애아동들을 위한 수원 시내 초등학교의 편의시설 실태조사

The purposes of this study were to investigate the accomodations for the disabled children of the elementary schools in Suwon and to give helpful information to the parents and teachers for the improvement of the independence of disabled children at school. We measured the ramps, toilets, doorways and other accomodations in 64 elementary schools according to the checklists. The checklists of these facilities were based on the legal requirements of "The Act for the Benefit of the Disabled, Elderly and Pregnant Women". The data was analyzed by descriptive statistics and the ${\chi}^2$ test. None of the investigated schools satisfied all the legal requirements of the facilities. Fifteen elementary schools had adequate accomodations for the disabled children which allowed them to move independently from the entrance of the school to their classrooms located on the first floor. Only eight of fifteen schools had elevators to access their classrooms upstairs. The schools were divided into two groups according to their construction dates; before and after April 11th 1998, when "The Act for the Benefit of the Disabled, Elderly and Pregnant Women" took effect. There were statistically significant differences in the number of toilets, the width of the toilet entrance, and the slope of the ramps between the two groups (p<.05). We suggest that the accomodations for the disabled children need to be established on a systematic and on-going basis in the future. The teachers and administrators should be more aware of the legal requirements for appropriate accomodations for the disabled children.