5. Entrance
The building entrance is one of the most important architectural issues to be considered. The entrance design of any building depends on site features, building accessibility, building application and number of uses [7-8]. In addition to the above-mentioned
cases, when designing library entrances for the blind, architects should consider their
particular conditions (physical and motor) as well as their perception of space and
environment.
As far as possible, stairs should be avoided in designing these entrances. They
should be located on the ground floor and main travel paths leading to them easily
identified. If stairs are unavoidable, they should be built using even tread and height in
riser. It should be noted that whether there is one single step or a flight of more than
10 steps, there must be a landing. It is necessary to install a handrail and nosing in
designing the building entrance stairs. To aid accessibility of the library entrance further, in addition to stairs, a ramp may be incorporated (with a maximum slope of 6%),
if required. To enable the coming and going of blind users, the library entrance should
be 2 meters wide.
Entrance location is also highly important, since the relationship between this and
the area of space where the person enters determines the path to be taken and the
type of activity to be performed inside the building [9] (Figure 1).