scholarly journals Practical Challenges of Creating and Managing the “Barrier-Free Basic Plan” for Better Accessibility in Cities by Local Governments in Japan

Author(s):  
Maiko Sugawara ◽  
Hirokazu Nagano ◽  
Tomoya Beppu ◽  
Tomoyuki Inagaki

The Barrier-Free Basic Plan (BFBP) of Japan is based on Article 25 in the Act on the Promotion of Smooth Transportation, etc. of Elderly Persons, Disabled Persons, etc., abbreviated as the “Barrier-Free Act”. BFBPs are created by municipal governments and play a crucial role in progressing the accessibility of existing buildings/facilities in cities. However, the number of municipal governments which have their own BFBPs stands at only 304 out of a total of approximately 1700 municipalities in 2020. The purpose of this paper is to describe the barriers and difficulties that administrative officers face in creating and managing BFBPs. The questionnaires were distributed in 2018 to 183 municipal governments which have their own BFBPs. The procedures of analyzing the results were as follows: 1) motivation for creating their own BFBPs, 2) supportive advisers in proceeding with the creation of BFBPs, 3) difficulties of creating their own BFBPs, 4) key factors promoting the quality of BFBPs, and 5) self-evaluation of their own BFBPs. In conclusion, the challenges that administrative officers faced in creating BFBPs and the required measures to raise the quality of BFBPs on a practical level were discovered, by considering the population scales of municipalities and the establishment year of the BFBP. The continuous removing of obstacles in existing buildings based on BFBPs will allow for more comfortable and accessible cities for everyone.

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-33
Author(s):  
Amela Teskeredžić ◽  
◽  
Dženana Radžo Alibegović ◽  
Hurma Begić ◽  
◽  
...  

Health self-evaluation, as a subjective measure, is related to person’s well-being because it encapsulates physical and emotional health evaluation. It has been concluded that subjective health is, for most of people, number one trait of quality of living that is connected to health. Individual is to decide which aspects of objective situation are important for their satisfaction in life. In other words, way in which a person will perceive and react to an objective situation depends on their personal traits. Aim of this research was to examine the differences in relation to gender and health state of visually impaired older persons of that live in institutional accommodation, by self-evaluation. Respondents sample was comprised of 40 visually impaired older persons, both genders (13 male and 27 female) that live in nursing home “Dom penzionera” in Tuzla. Research has been conducted by interview, using questionnaire “Quality of life of adult persons with motoric disabilities in territory of Vojvodina” (Susnjevic, 2015). Because of the structure of questions in questionnaire, it was possible to apply it on visually impaired persons as well. Data acquired had been processed with descriptive statistics, hi-squre and t – test, in order to determine if there were differences in relation to gender and selfevaluation of physical and social functioning. Results of the research have shown that although means have proven that there are differences in acquired results between respondents of male and female gender, results of t-test have shown that those differences are not statistically significant. Presence of any kind of damage, and visual impairment as well can influence person’s psychological and physical integrity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-350
Author(s):  
João Sette Whitaker Ferreira ◽  
Eduardo Rojas ◽  
Higor Rafael De Souza Carvalho ◽  
Carolina Rago Frignani ◽  
Ligia Santi Lupo

In the last few decades, most Latin American countries have made good progress in improving the living conditions of urban populations, but still face enormous challenges. This paper describes the roles of city and other local governments in designing housing policies and integrating them into governance, planning and finance. This includes many innovations in local governments’ housing policies, especially those implemented in the first decade of this century by progressive city governments. It also includes decentralization that supported municipal governments to develop their housing and urban development plans. Relevant as well are policies to address the quantitative deficit (insufficient supply of housing) and the qualitative deficit (inadequate quality of housing), such as informal settlement upgrading. The paper includes examples of where housing policy decentralization created spaces for democratic, participatory and inclusive city governance. It also highlights the importance for social housing of finance and the measures that may be taken to address this, including land management instruments and capture of real estate surplus value. But much of this innovation has been lost over the last decade, after the economic crisis and the rise of a new wave of conservative regimes in the region.


2011 ◽  
pp. 2685-2699
Author(s):  
Christopher G. Reddick

This study examines Ontario, Canada’s municipal e-government adoption. This paper specifically focuses on how e-government has increased citizen-initiated contacts with these local governments. This study uses survey data of these local governments to determine the key factors that predict increased citizen contact with e-government. What these municipal governments most commonly are doing is informational e-government, such as providing downloadable forms for manual completion. Transactional e-government is done less often, with very few local governments offering online payment of taxes, for example. The regression results indicated that offering more online services or e-services and having a separate information technology (IT) department developing the e-government budget increased citizen contact with e-government. The traditional factors that are used to explain citizen-initiated contact, such as socioeconomic status of the community, were not found to have any impact on increasing citizen contact with e-government.


Author(s):  
Christopher G. Reddick

This study examines Ontario, Canada’s municipal e-government adoption. This chapter specifically focuses on how e-government has increased citizen-initiated contacts with these local governments. This study uses survey data of these local governments to determine the key factors that predict increased citizen contact with e-government. What these municipal governments most commonly are doing is informational e-government, such as providing downloadable forms for manual completion. Transactional e-government is done less often, with very few local governments offering online payment of taxes, for example. The regression results indicated that offering more online services or e-services and having a separate information technology (IT) department developing the e-government budget increased citizen contact with e-government. The traditional factors that are used to explain citizen-initiated contact, such as socioeconomic status of the community, were not found to have any impact on increasing citizen contact with e-government.


Pedagogika ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 137 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-116
Author(s):  
Jelizaveta Tumlovskaja ◽  
Romas Prakapas

The self-evaluation of the quality of activities in general education schools in Lithuania was started in 2002. A number of scientific studies have been carried out during the process of design and application of quality self-evaluation tools; however, research showed that the essence of quality self-evaluation processes was not always understood. Meanwhile, there are examples of good practice in Lithuania that have been identified with an external quality evaluation of the schools. Therefore, this article addresses to the problem of the factors that determine the success of self-evaluation of quality in general education schools. The article is based on a case study strategy. Classical and content analysis methods were used to process the research data. The study concludes that the key factors of the success of quality self-evaluation in schools consist of a well-organized self-evaluation process, timely use of self-evaluation data, and an impact on organizational development in response to change challenges. Factors identified with the study are related to clear management decisions related to planning, responsible involvement of all community members, and integration of internal processes focusing on the challenges of educational process change. This helps to clearly understand the mission of the organization, and also provides a great foundation for the leadership of every member of the community and contributes to the development of their professional competencies.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Nuah Perdamenta Tarigan ◽  
Christian Siregar ◽  
Simon Mangatur Tampubolon

Justice that has not existed and is apparent among the disabilities in Indonesia is very large and spread in the archipelago is very large, making the issue of equality is a very important thing especially with the publication of the Disability Act No. 8 of 2016 at the beginning of that year. Only a few provinces that understand properly and well on open and potential issues and issues will affect other areas including the increasingly growing number of elderly people in Indonesia due to the increasing welfare of the people. The government of DKI Jakarta, including the most concerned with disability, from the beginning has set a bold step to defend things related to disability, including local governments in Solo, Bali, Makassar and several other areas. Leprosy belonging to the disability community has a very tough marginalization, the disability that arises from leprosy quite a lot, reaches ten percent more and covers the poor areas of Indonesia, such as Nusa Tenggara Timur, Papua, South Sulawesi Provinces and even East Java and West Java and Central Java Provinces. If we compare again with the ASEAN countries we also do not miss the moment in ratifying the CRPD (Convention of Rights for People with Disability) into the Law of Disability No. 8 of 2016 which, although already published but still get rejections in some sections because do not provide proper empowerment and rights equality. The struggle is long and must be continued to build equal rights in all areas, not only health and welfare but also in the right of the right to receive continuous inclusive education.


Agronomy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1283
Author(s):  
Vasileios Ziogas ◽  
Georgia Tanou ◽  
Giasemi Morianou ◽  
Nektarios Kourgialas

Among the various abiotic stresses, drought is the major factor limiting crop productivity worldwide. Citrus has been recognized as a fruit tree crop group of great importance to the global agricultural sector since there are 140 citrus-producing countries worldwide. The majority of citrus-producing areas are subjected to dry and hot summer weather, limited availability of water resources with parallel low-quality irrigation water due to increased salinity regimes. Citrus trees are generally classified as “salt-intolerant” with high water needs, especially during summer. Water scarcity negatively affects plant growth and impairs cell metabolism, affecting the overall tree growth and the quality of produced fruit. Key factors that overall attempt to sustain and withstand the negative effect of salinity and drought stress are the extensive use of rootstocks in citriculture as well as the appropriate agronomical and irrigation practices applied. This review paper emphasizes and summarizes the crucial role of the above factors in the sustainability of citriculture.


2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hamed Nosrati ◽  
Reza Aramideh Khouy ◽  
Ali Nosrati ◽  
Mohammad Khodaei ◽  
Mehdi Banitalebi-Dehkordi ◽  
...  

AbstractSkin is the body’s first barrier against external pathogens that maintains the homeostasis of the body. Any serious damage to the skin could have an impact on human health and quality of life. Tissue engineering aims to improve the quality of damaged tissue regeneration. One of the most effective treatments for skin tissue regeneration is to improve angiogenesis during the healing period. Over the last decade, there has been an impressive growth of new potential applications for nanobiomaterials in tissue engineering. Various approaches have been developed to improve the rate and quality of the healing process using angiogenic nanomaterials. In this review, we focused on molecular mechanisms and key factors in angiogenesis, the role of nanobiomaterials in angiogenesis, and scaffold-based tissue engineering approaches for accelerated wound healing based on improved angiogenesis.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Bagavandas

Abstract Background The main objective of this study is to develop a multilevel multi-factor index to assess the quality of life of the Malayali tribal population of India at the household and village levels based on nine domains, namely, Demography, Economy, Health, Human Development, Infrastructure Development, Work Participation, Recreation, Social Capital and Self Perception. An attempt is made to classify the individuals as well as villages by the overall scores of a multi-factor -index within a community which will help policymakers to develop concrete policy recommendations for the improvement of the quality of life of this tribal group. Method Multilevel factor analysis is utilized to determine uncorrelated meaningful factors and their respective weights using Mplus software from the nested dataset consists of values of nine domains of 1096 individuals collected from 19 villages. A multilevel multi-factor index is constructed using the weights of these factors. The qualities of the lives of different households and different villages are assessed using the scores of this index. Results Three different factors are identified at household as well as village levels. The quality of life at Households and Village levels are classified as poor, low, moderate, good, and excellent based on five quintiles of the scores of the multi-factor index, and the contribution of each domain in this classification is ascertained. Discussion This study finds that at household as well as at village levels, the quality of life of the individuals of this tribal population increases with an increase in education, income, and occupation status which make them lead a healthy life and also make them to find time and money to spend on recreation. Infrastructure is not important at the household level but not so at the village level. Conclusion The main purpose of developing this kind of multi-factor index at different levels is to provide a tool for tribal development based on realistic data that can be used to monitor the key factors that encompass the social, health, environmental, and economic dimensions of quality of lives at the household and community levels of these tribal people.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document