Developing an Integrated Health Promotion Pilot Program for Individuals with Disabilities: Be Active, Work Safe

BACKGROUND: Individuals with disabilities face increasing health and employment disparities when compared to the general population, which include factors such as poorer health and decreased earnings, job security, and occupational roles. In response to these known disparities, federal initiatives have focused on promoting the health and well-being of people with a disability (i.e., Healthy People 2020; Surgeon General’s Report), and emphasized the need for increased health promotion efforts. PURPOSE: To describe the use of participatory action research approaches in obtaining the feedback of stakeholders (5 individuals with a disability, 5 experts in disability) who pilot tested an innovative, integrated online health promotion program, called Be Active, Work Safe. The intervention aims to facilitate physical activity participation and workplace safety for people with a disability to reduce employment and health disparities. METHOD: Stakeholders reviewed the 8-week online program and provided feedback on accessibility, usability, and content through a series of quantitative forms embedded in the online program as well as through interviews. RESULTS: Based on the feedback, changes to the organization (e.g., participant progression through the program), layout (e.g., navigation), and content (e.g., behavior change activities) were made to better meet the needs of individuals with a disability. CONCLUSION: Using stakeholders in the development of integrated safety and health promotion programs is an important step to ensure the unique employment and physical activity needs of people with a disability are addressed. Future plans to test the effectiveness of the revised program through a randomized controlled trial will be described.