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Maria Griva et al. Accessibility in vernacular settlements

led on strategies, good practices and connections We must stress that the fundamental concept of
and interactions between the investigated areas, the accessibility chain is missing. A significant gap
(1b) the national accessibility and architectural recorded via the literature review concerns address-
heritage legislation and (1c) listing of the Greek ing and managing Greek environments of high ar-
vernacular settlements and of the realised case-by- chitectural value, such as the vernacular settlements.
case and authorised by councils relevant accessi- Generally, there are difficulties in implementing the
bility interventions; existing Greek building legislation, attributed to the
• In situ research in Greek vernacular settlements as special features of these environments and the fact
well as in Greek archaeological sites where numer- that Greek legislation has a quite general character
ous accessibility interventions have appeared. and does not include regulations aiming exclusively at
• Development of accessibility measuring processes the environments mentioned earlier. The lack of spe-
and tools and evaluation criteri. cial regulations to give directions for accessibility in-
• Conduction of questionnaires and interviews with terventions and adjustments into such environments
stakeholders, including persons with disabilities, has led to case-by-case interventions (on buildings
regarding the fields of tourism, learning and living and in public spaces) authorised by councils, which
place. constitute fragmentary constructions. With these
• Classification, by accessibility level, of the Greek case-by-case interventions, we recorded an intention
to interpret accessibility legislation. The result is the
vernacular settlements and the realised relevant generation of new accessibility “vocabularies” for in
interventions and development of typologies and situ adjustments. However, the role of standards and
evaluation. standardisation is crucial, and a standard “vocabu-
• Organization and analysis of information. lary” practice is deemed the basis for training persons
• Configuration of general directions and tools for with different types of disabilities. To bridge this gap,
accessibility in vernacular settlements’ environ- the present research, through investigating the axes of
ments and assessment of them with accessibility protection of architectural heritage and ensuring ac-
experts in various fields. cessibility, aspires to propose directions and tools for
• Implementation of the above directions and con- a holistic approach and the perception of the identity
duction of case studies. of vernacular settlements, supplementing the national
• Testing the applied directions with a focus group legislation.
of users, including persons with disabilities. Firstly, there are regulations for the listed build-
• Extraction and evaluation of results; and ings, with a few references to accessibility issues.
• Codification of accessibility provisions and gener- Secondly, there is a reasonably developed context for
ation of conclusions and proposals. accessibility in public spaces generally and not spe-
cifically in heritage environments, which needs to
The Greek Context, Accessibility and Vernacular be updated. Moreover, a critical point of the existing
Settlements’ Issues and Challenges legislation is that it does not address vernacular set-
The literature review is the first stage of the present tlements as complicated architectural ensembles but
research. We have defined the theoretical frameworks primarily as buildings and public spaces. However,
(see Theoretical Framework section). This literature the vernacular settlements are much more than a sum
review clearly shows that the accessibility approach of buildings and open spaces. So, developing the con-
in vernacular settlements towards sustainability and a text of regulation for a holistic approach to vernacular
holistic experience for all is multidimensional, multi- settlements is essential.
layered, and interdisciplinary. Furthermore, the litera- Another issue is that legislation and realised in-
ture review and the Greek context revealed some gaps, terventions tend to emphasise mobility impairment
issues, and challenges. while overlooking other types of impairment, inevita-

84 | Proceedings of the 7th UNESCO UNITWIN Conference