Community Receptivity: The Ecology of Disabled Persons’ Participation in the Physical, Political and Social Environments

John C Bricout,David B Gray

doi:10.1080/15017410500335229

John C Bricout, David B Gray

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/15017410500335229

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Abstract

The physical environment is the space in which people with a disability participate in the public sphere. The community provides a suitable unit of analysis for investigating the interaction between the physical environment and persons with a disability because it is the common space in which public participation is played out. The places, physical features, structures and objects that constitute the physical environment bear the inscription of the social, political and economic environments. The physical environment reciprocally influences the social, political and economic environments, as well as the perceptions of participants in the public sphere. Community receptivity is a concept that links the physical and social environment in relation to community readiness to support the public participation of persons with a disability. Results of a recent community-based program of research in the USA that developed and tested measures of community receptivity to people with a physical mobility limitation are reported. Implications of this research are discussed together with suggestions for future research.

Highlights

In the first decade of the 21st century social, political and technological advances have increased the potential for the public participation of disabled people in society (Bricout 2004, Cook & Burke 2002, O’Day & Goldstein 2005)
A recent research project conducted in the USA to assess several aspects of community receptivity toward people with a physical mobility limitation provides findings and insights into the dynamic interplay of physical and social environments as they influence the public participation of disabled people
The ‘‘interstitial spaces’’ between places in the physical environment, whether curb cuts in the pavement or bus stops, and transportation media linking places are necessarily subject to local budgetary constraints, but it is not always easy or straightforward to discern if limitations in this arena are reflective of poor community receptivity or fiscal realities, and in the sociopolitical climate created by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) public officials are likely to characterize it as the latter rather than the former, both in archival documents and in interviews

Summary

Community Methodology

Three analytic criteria are proposed for drawing the boundaries of community in the conduct of research, based upon the extant research literature (c.f. Brent 2004, Prezza, Amici, Roberti & Tedeschi 2001, Lev-Wiesel 2003, Williams 1999). The ‘‘interstitial spaces’’ between places in the physical environment, whether curb cuts in the pavement or bus stops, and transportation media linking places are necessarily subject to local budgetary constraints, but it is not always easy or straightforward to discern if limitations in this arena are reflective of poor community receptivity or fiscal realities, and in the sociopolitical climate created by the ADA public officials are likely to characterize it as the latter rather than the former, both in archival documents and in interviews These considerations of sociopolitical context shaped our approach to the design and implementation of measures, as well as to the interpretation of our findings and plans for future research. Homes and services for people who use wheelchairs should be kept out of residential neighborhoods

Most people who use wheelchairs want to participate in paid work

I get the information I need to get to the places

Strangers in my community ask me about my disability

Conclusion