Hospitality for All: Analysis of the accessibility of restaurants for people with disability using mobility aids in Tikkurila
Pancaldi, Dorine (2025)
2025
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025052817765
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2025052817765
Tiivistelmä
This thesis aims to examine the current state of thebaccessibility of restaurants in Tikkurila for people that need a mobility aid such as a wheelchair, walker or cane to live a life with more freedom of movement and mobility. Equally, it aims to explain how important it is in 2025 to center accessibility when designing services and public spaces, as it is a human right to be able to enjoy life freely regardless of disabilities.
The partner of this thesis was the Sustainable Accessible Future Environments (SAFE) project, which seeks to create safe and accessible urban areas. The purpose of this thesis is to provide the SAFE project with detailed insights into the accessibility challenges faced by restaurants in Tikkurila, enabling targeted improvements and innovations. It also offers practical recommendations that restaurants can implement to enhance accessibility, creating more inclusive and welcoming environments for all customers.
This thesis reviews the legal frameworks in Finland and the EU, explores Universal Design principles, examines accessibility challenges in hospitality, identifies barriers faced by mobility aid users, and highlights best practices and previous research to support the analysis of restaurant accessibility.
The methodology used in this thesis is qualitative research with observation based evaluation and document analysis. For this research five anonymous restaurants were observed and evaluated. The data was then analyzed and the results showed an overall number of restaurants that did follow the laws, guidelines and requirements at least partially. And the data also showed that with even slightly different ways to evaluate the restaurant the results would have been less positive. The results also showed the areas of improvement that restaurants can focus on.
The partner of this thesis was the Sustainable Accessible Future Environments (SAFE) project, which seeks to create safe and accessible urban areas. The purpose of this thesis is to provide the SAFE project with detailed insights into the accessibility challenges faced by restaurants in Tikkurila, enabling targeted improvements and innovations. It also offers practical recommendations that restaurants can implement to enhance accessibility, creating more inclusive and welcoming environments for all customers.
This thesis reviews the legal frameworks in Finland and the EU, explores Universal Design principles, examines accessibility challenges in hospitality, identifies barriers faced by mobility aid users, and highlights best practices and previous research to support the analysis of restaurant accessibility.
The methodology used in this thesis is qualitative research with observation based evaluation and document analysis. For this research five anonymous restaurants were observed and evaluated. The data was then analyzed and the results showed an overall number of restaurants that did follow the laws, guidelines and requirements at least partially. And the data also showed that with even slightly different ways to evaluate the restaurant the results would have been less positive. The results also showed the areas of improvement that restaurants can focus on.