THE STUDY ABOUT THE ACCESSIBILITY OF COUNSELING ROOM

Abstract

In recent years, the demand for student support on university campuses, particularly counseling services, has been increasing. According to a survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the number of people with mental health issues in Japan is increasing, and an average of 5.4% of university students use on-campus counseling rooms. However, many of these facilities operate within limited spaces and budgets, often by repurposing existing rooms, leaving room for improvement in terms of adequate accommodations for users. Against this backdrop, several related studies have been conducted, but few focus on the ’accessibility’ of counseling rooms. Therefore, this study examines what kind of environment makes counseling rooms be felt more ’accessible’ to users. First, a preliminary experiment was conducted to understand the characteristics of the doors and surrounding areas of existing counseling rooms. In the main experiment, impression evaluation tests were conducted using stimulus images created based on the preliminary findings. The results suggested that environments with doors that have openings, bright hallways, and physical elements that convey a ’human presence,’ such as posters displaying the room name near the door, are perceived by users as more ’accessible.’