Inclusive Design Assessment of State Park Buildings in Michigan for the Elderly: An Empirical Study Using Case Studies and Focus Grou

State parks are source of recreation and relaxation for people of all ages and abilities. The built facilities on these parks play a significant role to facilitate the visitors and define their overall experience. Thus, it is important to have knowledge about human context and varied needs of users to make these facilities inclusive and satisfactory for diverse visitors. Currently, state park buildings follow ADA guidelines which are limited in providing accessibility to a wide variety of visitors. Thus, there is a need to go beyond ADA guidelines to state park buildings more inclusive.;In light of the research need mentioned above, this study aimed at examining the current accessibility conditions of state park buildings in Michigan along with user perceptions about their inclusiveness. The study was divided into two phases. In the first phase, six buildings in three state parks of Michigan were assessed using an inclusive design assessment tool. In the second phase, perceived accessibility of the users regarding buildings in one of the state parks was measured using a focus group of nine senior citizen participants. In addition to giving their satisfaction level regarding different design features of the built facilities, focus group participants also provided with several recommendations to improve inclusiveness of the facilities. The findings of the study indicated that even the buildings complying with ADA guidelines did not meet the needs of the focus group participants completely. This reinforces that ADA guidelines, which are minimum requirements for the design of state park buildings, are not enough to satisfy the needs of diverse users.;The study has significant theoretical and practical outcomes. The theoretical contribution of the study includes the development of a tool for assessing the accessibility of buildings. The practical contributions include recommendations for designers to improve inclusiveness of buildings and include the user feedback as much as possible in this regard.