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Straipsnyje, vertinant asmens poreikius, susijusius su konkrečiais turizmo paslaugos prieigos reikalavimais, aplinka analizuojama universalaus dizaino aspektu: prieinamumas, aplinkos pritaikymas ir galimos kliūtys. Šio mokslinio straipsnio tikslas – įvertinti turizmo aplinkos prieinamumą asmenims, turintiems judėjimo negalią. Analizuojama mokslinė literatūra, apibūdinanti prieinamo turizmo ir universalaus dizaino sąvoką. Pateikiamas holistinis požiūris į turizmo paslaugų prieinamumo galimybes bei turizmo infrastruktūros pritaikomumą asmenims, turintiems specialiųjų poreikių, t. y. judėjimo negalią. Straipsnyje taip pat aptariami teisiniai aplinkos prieinamumo neįgaliesiems reguliavimo aspektai bei socialinės integracijos problemos. Empirinė straipsnio dalis remiasi aplinkos sąlygų, neįgaliųjų su judėjimo negalia poreikių patenkinimu, patirtimi ir galimų kliūčių identifikavimu. Pagal šias sritis straipsnyje analizuojami pagrindiniai turizmo pritaikymo neįgaliesiems infrastruktūriniai sektoriai Lietuvoje. Metodai: mokslinės literatūros analizė ir asmenų, turinčių judėjimo negalią, apklausa, kuria siekiama atskleisti turizmo aplinkos prieinamumą pačių neįgaliųjų požiūriu ir parengti gaires situacijai tobulinti. Tyrimas atskleidė, kad žmonės, turintys judėjimo negalią, retai lankosi turistinėse vietose ir beveik niekada nesinaudoja turizmo teikiamomis paslaugomis, nes Lietuvoje apgyvendinimo, maitinimo įstaigos, kelionių organizavimo įmonės, kultūros įstaigos, viešasis transportas, jų teigimu, yra prieinami tik iš dalies. Išanalizavus rodiklius išskiriama silpniausia objektų pasiekiamumo sritis – prie pastatų nėra tinkamai pritaikyto panduso ir automatiškai atsidarančių durų.

The set of activities undertaken in the field of environmental accessibility and inclusion, based on the skills of the Dalt Laboratory research group, provide an example of the potential of structured sharing of knowledge between public bodies and institutes for the social enhancement of the architectural heritage. Among the various Third Mission processes developed at the University of Udine, the essay describes the processes carried out for the development of universal design activities, cultural dissemination and technical support to create tools aimed at implementing the FVG law – Regional Law 10/2018, General principles and implementing provisions on accessibility. In particular, a case study, considered emblematic, is addressed, which involves the Municipality of Udine for drafting the Plan for the elimination of architectural barriers.

There exists a significant difference between the life satisfaction of people with and without disabilities, to the disadvantage of the former. The present work investigates the association between environmental accessibility and life satisfaction by disability status. The environmental accessibility index is built based on the results of the 2012 Eurobarometer survey on accessibility, while empirical analyses are conducted using data from the EU-SILC 2013, which includes an ad hoc module on wellbeing. We test the following hypotheses using Blinder–Oaxaca decompositions: 1. Coeteris paribus, environmental accessibility is associated with a reduction of the difference between the life satisfaction of people without disabilities and people with disabilities; 2. The negative association of environmental accessibility with the difference in life satisfaction by disability status is greater in absolute value among women and people in the lowest income quartile. Both hypotheses are fully supported.

The main objective of this paper is to critically reflect on the right to accessibility of persons with disabilities in India, with special focus on the context of public streets and environments. The paper draws on work carried out during the India-related part of the Inclusive Public Space Project, as well as judicial pronouncements, and the norms evolved by India as a party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. In this paper, we briefly set out competing conceptions of accessibility and evaluate its constitutional and statutory manifestations. Further, the measures undertaken by the government in the form of policies, guidelines and campaigns to ensure accessibility in the Indian socio-political infrastructure are also assessed. The same is followed by the analysis of significant judicial precedents of the Supreme Court and High Courts on different aspects of the right to accessibility, to demonstrate how the courts have spearheaded various structural enhancements in the accessibility regime in India. The paper is concluded by drawing attention to the need for greater synchronicity in the adjudication and implementation of the principle of accessibility.

As urbanization and population growth continue, cities concentrate an increasing amount of people, energy, and economy. Multi-story buildings enable densification, requiring vertical transport for access to upper floors. This is crucial for people with disabilities, who may face barriers in the built environment. Elevators are essential for accessibility, allowing everyone, including people with disabilities, to comfortably access multi-story buildings. However, barriers to inclusivity remain, often subtle and hard to define. This paper highlights one such example, focusing on elevator use by individuals with varying degrees of hearing loss. Currently, they cannot establish one-to-one communication with the outside world if trapped in an elevator. Under EN standards, this issue stems from alarm system requirements that lack effective alternatives to voice communication. Based on this evidence, the research was carried out in two steps, with the aim of understanding the needs of deaf individuals when using elevators by directly involving them in the study. First, a questionnaire conducted in Italy collected information regarding the safety and usability of elevators. Second, a test campaign involving both deaf and normal-hearing participants was carried out to quantify the severity of the issue and evaluate potential solutions to address the identified challenges. The conclusions indicate that current alarm systems in elevators are inadequate for individuals with hearing impairments, and effective alternatives must be implemented.

This study provides user-centered insights into how inclusive forest design can support the physical, emotional, and social well-being of older adults. It operationalizes universal design principles in natural settings and confirms their relevance through empirical evidence. With the acceleration of global population aging, adapting forest recreation environments to meet the specific needs of older adults is increasingly urgent. This study investigates how infrastructure influences both participation and emotional well-being among older visitors to forest recreation areas. Data were collected from 446 participants aged 65 and older, using a structured survey distributed through in-person contact and digital snowball sampling. Participants reported their infrastructure preferences and their emotional responses related to forest visits. The findings show that older adults highly value site cleanliness, shaded seating, accessible restrooms, and clear signage. Expectations varied significantly according to health status, age group, and visitation frequency. Emotional well-being was positively associated with both comfort and visit frequency. These results demonstrate how inclusive infrastructure plays a vital role in supporting older adults’ access to and enjoyment of forest environments. The study affirms that universally designed forests not only reduce barriers but also promote psychological health and active aging, contributing to developing more equitable and sustainable nature-based recreation areas.

Biodiversity knowledge is fundamental to conservation planning and sustainable environmental decision-making; however, general-purpose Large Language Models (LLMs) frequently produce hallucinations when responding to biodiversity-related queries. To address this challenge, we propose BioChat, a domain-specific question-answering system that integrates a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) framework with a Re-Ranker–based retrieval and routing mechanism. The system is built upon a verified biodiversity dataset curated by the National Institute of Biological Resources (NIBR), comprising 25,593 species and approximately 970,000 structured data points. We systematically evaluate the effects of embedding selection, routing strategy, and generative model choice on factual accuracy and hallucination mitigation. Experimental results show that the proposed Re-Ranker-based routing strategy significantly improves system reliability, increasing factual accuracy from 47.9% to 71.3% and reducing hallucination rate from 34.0% to 24.4% compared with Naive RAG baseline. Among the evaluated LLMs, Qwen2-7B-Instruct achieves the highest factual accuracy, while Gemma-2-9B-Instruct demonstrates superior hallucination control. By delivering transparent, verifiable, and context-grounded biodiversity information, BioChat supports environmental education, citizen science, and evidence-based conservation policy development. This work demonstrates how trustworthy AI systems can serve as sustainability-enabling infrastructure, facilitating reliable access to biodiversity knowledge for long-term ecological conservation and informed public decision-making.

AA_ArcheologiaAccessibile is the title of a research developed at the University of Udine and University of Trieste in the field of inclusive design and Design for All for the accessibility to cultural heritage. This survey, the results of which are reported in this article, is part of a broader program for the development of inclusion carried out at Universities, implemented with the participation of several institutions including the Regional Council of Associations of People with Disabilities and Their Families FVG and the Regional Directorate for Cultural Heritage and Landscape FVG. In particular, the paper presents the experience developed at the National Archaeological Museum of Aquileia aimed at transforming the traditional paths of knowledge of the findings in multisensory educational and pedagogical experiences, involving all visitors regardless of age, cultural background and physical and sense-perception abilities.

Using three spatial network measures of “space syntax”, this correlational study describes four interaction-related behaviors among three groups of users in relation to visibility and accessibility of spaces in four adult intensive care units (ICUs) of different size, geometry, and specialty. Systematic field observations of interaction-related behaviors show significant differences in spatial distribution of interaction-related behaviors in the ICUs. Despite differences in unit characteristics and interaction-related behaviors, the study finds that when nurses and physicians “interact while sitting” they prefer spaces that help maintain a high level of environmental awareness; that when nurses “walk” and “interact while walking” they avoid spaces with better global access and visibility; and that everyone in ICUs “walk” more in spaces with higher control over neighboring spaces. It is argued that such consistent behavioral patterns occur due to the structural similarities of spatial networks over and above the more general functional similarities of ICUs.

Monitoring health inequality is a practice that fosters accountability and continuous improvement within health systems. The cycle of health inequality monitoring helps to identify and track health differences between subgroups providing evidence and feedback to strengthen equity-oriented policies programmes and practices. Through inequality monitoring and the use of disaggregated data countries gain insight into how health is distributed in the population looking beyond what is indicated by national averages. Data about health inequalities underlie health interventions that aim to reach vulnerable populations. Furthermore they constitute an evidence base to inform and promote equity-oriented health initiatives including the movement towards equitable universal health coverage. _x000D__x000D_ _x000D__x000D_ This Handbook is a user-friendly resource developed to help countries establish and strengthen health inequality monitoring practices. The handbook elaborates on the steps of health inequality monitoring including selecting relevant health indicators and equity stratifiers obtaining data analysing data reporting results and implementing changes. Throughout the handbook examples from low- and middle-income countries are presented to illustrate how concepts are relevant and applied in real-world situations; informative text boxes provide the context to better understand the complexities of the subject. The final section of the handbook presents an expanded example of national-level health inequality monitoring of reproductive maternal and child health. _x000D__x000D_.