Disability is too often viewed with a disproportionate focus on functional limitations or impairments as manifest in the individual's body or mind. However, features of the environment interact with functioning in determining the ability to participate in society. At any level of functioning, features of the environment can be disabling, if they inhibit participation; or enabling, if they facilitate participation. Data collected from the follow-back sample of the National Health Interview Survey on Disability (NHIS-D), 1994-1995, were analyzed to test a model of social participation among persons with disability that includes measures of individual functioning and the environment. Sociodemographic characteristics and physical and mental health were controlled in a series of multivariate regression analyses predicting: perceived difficulty getting in and out of the house; and the actual number of days one left the house in a two-week period. Functional limitations (e.g., ambulation) bore a direct relationship to both the perceived and actual ability to leave one's home. The need to traverse steps or stairs to enter or leave the house heightened perceived difficulty, which in turn limited the number of occasions outside the home. Steps or stairs had an indirect effect, via perceived difficulty, on the ability of people with disabilities to leave their homes, posing an important environmental barrier to social participation. Stratified analyses were conducted to further examine these relationships among those who use a wheelchair or scooter as compared to those who do not. The significance of these results for research and housing policy are discussed.
Learning Objectives: This presentation serves to illustrate the importance of measuring the environment of disability
Keywords: Disability,
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.