Interior design studies for individuals with developmental disabilities: A systematic review of national literature

Abstract

Designing the interiors is an action, which is able to provide users an aesthetical and functional environment while enabling social and communal relations possible. Interiors provide these social relations possible for all users, regardless of religion, language, gender, race, ability and status. Like typically developing peers, also individuals with developmental disabilities (IDD) spend their times in social and public environments like educational environments, hospitals, town halls, shopping malls, cinemas, theaters and particularly in their houses. Nonetheless, it is known that while using the interiors they might be excluded due to common barriers and on the other hand alienated by using the “disabled” sign. Since ‘user’ is the main concern of interior design, it inholds numerous solutions to elude this issue. Some of these solutions apart from planning and structural settings are planning, configuration, color, texture, design, lighting and furniture. In this study, previous studies on interior design for IDD existing in the Turkish national literature have been examined. The aim of the study is to draw a general framework by examining the studies about interior design for these individuals and serve future researches as a guide. Accordingly, the studies, which were accessed by using various keywords, were analyzed in terms of aims, types of disabilities, methods, data collection tools, types of interiors, types of qualitative elements of interior and types of studies (thesis/article). As a result, it is possible to state that scientific studies concentrated on the qualitative elements of interiors. It can also be stated that these studies must contain the problems of the IDD in these interiors and solution suggestions for these problems.