A Case Study on the Urban Perception of Disabled Students in Samsun (Turkey)

Abstract

Individual differences, especially physical disabilities, play a significant role in people's perception of their living places and their attitudes in these environments. Accordingly, the starting point of the present research is based on the possible contributions and developments of the implementations and studies partly eliminating the negative aspects of individual disabilities to the perceptions and information of the disabled people regarding the physical and social environment that they live in. The research aims to determine the impacts of time and experience on the recognition of the historical, cultural, and natural heritage properties of Samsun by the disabled students, on the analysis-based acquisition process of this information, and on the development and alteration of the disabled students' knowledge and perceptions regarding these properties. Within the scope of this purpose, the study has been carried out with a one-group pretest-posttest design recognized as the weak experimental design in the category of the experimental method. The mind mapping technique has been used as the data collection tool of the study. In the research, it has been observed that the theme contents of the posttest mind maps of the disabled students regarding the values symbolizing Samsun city are richer than the theme contents of their pretest mind maps. In other words, it has been detected that time and experience create a positive effect on the knowledge and perception of the disabled students regarding Samsun. It is thought that projects for people with disabilities, sightseeing and observation activities or increasing the means to enable them to reach natural, historical and cultural values will positively contribute to the knowledge and perceptions of disabled people about the values of the cities they live in. © Review of International Geographical Education.