| A harmonious society can be achieved in the manner of creating a comfortable and livable urban environment. However, the current urban environmental facilities are relatively backward, far from meeting the "universal" demand of all users, mainly manifested in a lack of consideration for vulnerable groups, such as the senior and the disabled in terms of the urban construction and design which is mostly based on the criteria of the normal but fails to give due attention to all users’demand. The requirements of barrier-free environment has been put forward since1989, but so far the development is far from satisfactory and even further from generality, which may be ascribed to the lack of public participation in the urban construction. Although the concept of public participation has been introduced into China since1990s, there is still much to improve. With the deepening of public civil rights awareness and the arrival of aging, the versatility of urban environment is increasing rapidly and the urban construction is an urgent need of public participation to solve all kinds of problems we are facing.This thesis firstly teases the existing theories of barrier-free design, universal design and public participation, on the basis of voluminous literature, including: Barrier-free design; seven principles of universal design; public participation in the theory of advocacy planning theory, ladder of citizen participation and communicative planning and focuses on making a detailed comparison between barrier-free design and universal design. Secondly, with the method of questionnaire survey, the paper investigates the status of the barrier-free construction, needs, problems and causes; the awareness of universal design ideology in our country, the public attitude of universal design, the demand of public; the real situation and necessity of public participation, public attitude and ideal towards the participation. The paper analyzes the data and comes to the conclusion that only with further public participation can we develop a better city, only with the design based on the universal design ideology can we create a harmonious city. The essence of the universal design ideology is to allow users to participate in the design and the paper discusses the public participation in universal design framework, the main public participation method and the public to participate in the organization. Finally, the paper prospects the future of universal design and public participation in our country, making a number of potential ways of promotion.The paper discusses the framework and organizational of public participation in the universal design through systematic study and teases the methods of public participation in universal design, including the use of questionnaires, affinity diagrams, working group method, public meeting method and site office method. And the conclusions can be of certain reference value for the further study of universal design and public participation. |
