IN-PERSON London. Section A

Abstract

The built environment creates the setting for a community, influencing active living and engagement with the place and people of that community. While many people with disabilities have community activity patterns that are different from the general population, such discrepancies are often ignored in mainstream community planning practices. The failure to represent the diverse activities of daily community living of people with disabilities may lead to poor decision-making and exacerbate the barriers to community integration that individuals with disabilities face daily. For individuals with disabilities to engage in active living in the community of their choice, individuals with disabilities will need to move beyond disability-specific systems, currently necessary to mitigate inequities, to recognize and work in existing community planning systems to address the role of the built community environment in supporting individuals with disabilities’ activities of daily living in community. Thus, the objectives of this research effort were to develop a framework describing the physical community environment factors associated with individuals with disabilities’ activities of daily community living. This framework was used to examine the effect of mainstream community planning practices and policies. We conducted a survey of nearly 400 individuals with disabilities that compares how different aspects of the built environment were used and accessed, with questions related to impacts on travel behavior, participation in community, and social relationships. Findings from this project can contribute to evidence-based decision- and policy-making which may be implemented in mainstream community planning to support the community living and participation of individuals with disabilities.