Integrative Book Reviews

Abstract

Smith, Ralph W., Austin, David R., & Kennedy, Daniel W. (1996). and Special Recreation: Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (3rd Ed). Dubuque, IA: Brown and Benchmark Publishing; (ISBN: 0-697-15246-4); $36.75 (cloth), 345 pp. Dattilo, John. (1994). Leisure Services: Responding to the Rights of People with Disabilities. State College, PA: Venture Publishing, Inc. (ISBN: 0-91025168-1) $29.95 (cloth), 399 pp. With the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, community leisure service providers are more attuned to including all populations in their recreation programs. Inclusion is a topic that is relevant to more than only community leisure professionals, however. All leisure service professionals, including leisure researchers, should be familiar with some of the issues of inclusion and leisure opportunities for all people. The books chosen for this review, although written about inclusion of people with disabilities only, have relevance for all populations, and thus many areas of leisure research and practice. Common themes in current leisure research include topics regarding opportunities and availability of recreation programs, stigma, negotiating barriers and constraints, and physical and psychological accessibility of recreation for women, people of color, low socio-economic groups, families, or other disenfranchised groups. Theories, research, and examples presented within the reviewed disability texts have relevance to issues of inclusion for all disciplines of leisure research, not just those dealing with disabling conditions. Research that directly or indirectly addresses related topics of race, culture, gender, class, religion, and ethnicity can be enhanced by the information provided in both the reviewed texts. Currently, few books exist that comprehensively present issues of inclusion for people with disabilities. Two of the most recent books were reviewed: Smith, R.W., Austin, D. R., & Kennedy, D. W. (1996). and Special Recreation: Opportunities for Persons with Disabilities (3rd Ed). Dubuque, IA: Brown and Benchmark Publishing; and Dattilo, J. (1994). Leisure Services: Responding to the Rights of People with Disabilities. State College, PA: Venture Publishing, Inc. Smith and his colleagues present a well organized text describing the concept of inclusive recreation services as well as techniques and examples of how to design, develop, and implement these programs. The book is divided into four sections. The first section, Introduction and Overview, addresses the conceptual issues of attitudes as well as legislative foundations of inclusion of people with disabilities into community recreation programs. Particular attention is given to the Americans with Disabilities Act in this section. Additionally, the authors use this section to describe the basic characteristics of common disabilities. The second section, and Facility Planning, presents separate chapters to describe barriers and accessibility, planning and evaluation techniques, and samples of exemplary inclusive recreation programs. The third section, Inclusive and Special Recreation Program Areas, focuses on recreation experiences in camping and wildernessadventure experiences, competitive sports, and arts. The last section, Resources and Trends, presents the supportive needs and community resources of inclusive programming and discusses the patterns inclusive recreation is developing. Additionally, Smith et al. provide useful appendices on organizations and related resources dealing with recreation and people with disabilities. Dattilo's text addresses similar topics with a moderately different approach, dividing his text into three sections. The first section entitled, Develop an Awareness addresses attitudes of self and others, terminology, and barriers. This section also includes a chapter on support families which addresses social support systems. …