Universal Mosque/Masjid Design

As a public building, a mosque (or any prayer area for Muslims in public
buildings) should remove all barriers that may confront persons with disabilities and
hinder them from performing their religious rituals. A mosque is regularly used at
least five times a day for praying, and for weekly events such as Jumu’ah (Friday
prayers). Therefore, a mosque should be accessible for all. But in fact, persons with
disabilities still find difficulties in accessing mosques. For example, the calling to
prayer and Friday sermon (Khutba) through loudspeakers, is a problem for persons
with hearing loss. Persons with physical disabilities, especially users of wheelchairs,
walkers or crutches, have difficulties in several areas in the mosque, including the
entrance, place of ablution, the lavatories and the area for removing shoes at the
entrance to the prayer hall. People are not allowed to enter the place of ablution or
prayer hall wearing shoes, people are also not allowed to enter with their personal
mobility devices. This is so that dirt from outside does not get carried into the
mosque. In order to understand the accessibility requirements for persons with
disabilities in a mosque, we have to know the essential parts in the construction of
the mosque and the mobility pattern that usually occurs in a mosque. In this paper,
an accessibility checklist which has been developed on the basis of an analysis of
accessibility requirements in mosques is presented.