The role of property managers in providing barrier free environment in the shopping centres of Hong Kong

Abstract

The concept of barrier free environment was first developed in Scandinavian countries encouraging the interaction amongst all walks of people in society. It was further extended to other countries and resulted in the popularization of the use of universal design in built premises. In Hong Kong, legislations against disability discrimination and code of practice on barrier free accessibility are established for the landlords, designers, engineers and property managers to follow with. Along with the raising concerns on barrier free environment, various stakeholders have placed great emphasis on such provision.

Shopping centres are publicly accessible premises and can be commonly found in Hong Kong. Other than the developers, property managers are the major stakeholder of the shopping centres in respect of the provision of barrier free environment. Newly built shopping centres are equipped with barrier free facilities according to the legislative requirements. However, there is a lack of such facilities in older shopping centres. Property managers, thus, play an important role in providing add-on barrier free facilities together with barrier free services in the shopping centres.

This paper aimed to study the impacts of various external and internal factors on the role of property managers in the provision of barrier free environment, and make recommendations for property managers to provide and promote barrier free environment in Hong Kong shopping centres. External factors include government legislation and government agencies, advocacy groups for persons with disabilities, mass media and professional associations of property management industry. For internal factor, company concern and participation will be used to study the impact on the role of property managers. To study the roles of property managers, questionnaire survey on shopping centre management practitioners and case studies on two shopping centres with different property managers were conducted. It was found that property managers perform different roles in response to the different factors during the provision of barrier free environment.

Through the analysis on the role of property managers, the study wishes to raise the awareness of the property management industry in regards of the provision of barrier free environment. It is hoped that the industry could further contribute in the achievement of equal opportunities and social inclusion through the promotion and provision of barrier free environment in shopping centres.