Disability Access Research Articles

Disability, poverty and health-service accessibility in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: a population-based repeated cross-sectional study in Colombia

ObjectivesIn Colombia, 4.3% of the population 5 years or older lives with a disability. They face higher levels of poverty and social exclusion compared with persons without disabilities. This article...

Accessing the Trail, Interpreting the Forest

The Stephen F. Austin Experimental Forest is the site of the first ADA-compliant US Forest Service project in Texas. Offering information about the history of forest management alongside information on Pineywoods ecosystems, the interpretive trail raises questions about how access is framed across “natural” and “built” environments as well as how distinctions between nature and culture operate within US environmental imaginaries. This article draws on feminist, posthumanist, and disability studies to conduct a close reading of the interpretive trail as text. It tracks the trail’s approach to disability access as well as its presentation of forest ecology, analyzing how the ableist logic of capitalist commodification underwrites the management of multispecies actants in the woods. I read against the grain of the trail in search of feminist, crip, posthumanist configurations of interdependence and more fluid human–nature boundaries. I argue that cripping the Austin requires questioning the unevenness of disability access as well as the utilitarian ideas of nature presented on the trail while also imagining how we might access and relate to this postindustrial forest otherwise.

The Ethics and Truth of Disability Access: An Information Perspective

The Ethics and Truth of Disability Access: An Information Perspective

Access and Inclusion Go to the Zoo

ABSTRACT Organizations such as zoos and museums offer educational experiences, along with opportunities for leisure and enjoyment, which should not be denied due to lack of access. In this case study, we present a process through which professionals in disability-related fields collaborated with a local community zoo to improve accessibility and inclusive experiences for visitors with disabilities. Recommendations are provided for conducting needs assessments and identifying and implementing new initiatives. We posit a four-stage process for accessibility improvement: Compliance, Commitment, Capacity, and Change. Organizations can use this framework to engage in meaningful work around disability access and inclusion.

Confronting the Legacy of Eugenics and Ableism: Towards Anti-Ableist Bioscience Education.

Society and education are inherently ableist. Disabled people are routinely excluded from education, or have poorer outcomes within educational systems. Improving educational experiences and outcomes for people of color has required educators to design antiracist curricula that explicitly address racial inequality. Here, we explore parallel antiableist approaches to bioscience education in an essay coauthored by a disabled bioscience student and able-bodied faculty member in bioscience. Our work is underpinned by Critical Disability Theory and draws on disability and pedagogical scholarship as well as our own experiences. The biosciences has a unique need to confront its history in the discredited pseudoscience of eugenics, which has led to discrimination and human rights abuses against disabled people. We provide a brief history of the relationship between biological sciences research and eugenics and explore how this legacy impacts bioscience education today. We then present a recommended structure for antiableist biology education. Our approach goes beyond providing disability access, to a model that educates all students about disability issues and empowers them to challenge ableist narratives and practices.

Multisensory Technologies for Inclusive Exhibition Spaces: Disability Access Meets Artistic and Curatorial Research

This article discusses applications of technology for sensory-disabled audiences in modern and contemporary art exhibitions. One case study of experimental artistic and curatorial research by The OtherAbilities art collective is discussed: a series of prototype tools for sensory translation from audible sound to vibration were developed to be embeddable in the architecture of spaces where art is presented. In the article, the case study is approached from a curatorial perspective. Based on bibliographical sources, the article starts with a brief historical reference to disability art activism and a presentation of contemporary accessibility solutions for sensory-disabled audiences in museums. The research for the case study was conducted during testing and feedback sessions on the prototypes using open-ended oral interviews, open-ended written comments, and ethnographic observation of visitors’ behavior during exhibitions. The testers were d/Deaf, hard of hearing and hearing. The results focus on the reception of the sensory translation of audible sound to vibration by test users of diverse hearing abilities and on the reception of the prototypes in the context of art and design exhibitions. The article closes with a reflection on how disability scholarship meets art curatorial theory in the example of the article’s case study.

Coloring Outside the Lines: Teaching Graphic Medicine as Disability Studies

The article argues for the importance of teaching undergraduate graphic medicine courses informed by disability studies. Using her experiences teaching graphic medicine classes over the last eight years, the author argues for the importance of graphic medicine courses beyond medical school curricula. This creates an opportunity not just to introduce disability studies concepts to undergraduates, but also for disability studies and graphic medicine to meaningfully illuminate each other. The article argues that framing comics through disability aesthetics and disability activism (including precepts such as access intimacy and disability justice) reveals how powerfully and consistently graphic medicine centers each. In turn, graphic medicine provides powerful opportunities to reimagine disability representation and access as aesthetics and accommodation. The article shares experiences of teaching graphic medicine, reflects on related dilemmas, and offers fruitful strategies for anyone wishing to teach graphic medicine courses informed by a disability studies approach.

A News Media Representation on Disability and Information Accessibility in China from the Perspective of Critical Discourse Analysis

Based on critical discourse analysis, this paper takes thirty news articles related to disability and information accessibility from three Chinese news media as its research object to explore themes that describe how Chinese news media reflects and constitutes its understanding of disability and information accessibility. By doing this, it intends to reveal the themes of those articles and identify potential prejudices, illusions, and stereotypes that may influence the disability. This paper aims to address the following two questions: 1) What content exists in mainstream Chinese news media concerning disability and information accessibility? 2) What themes do these discourses present regarding disability and information accessibility? The results show that 1) The content of thirty news articles includes introductions, evaluations and advice of apps related to information accessibility, activities promoting information accessibility, audiovisual works with information accessibility, and official policies regarding information accessibility; 2) Five key themes are found in these discourses, which are discourses of problem-solving, criticism, awareness as advocacy, self-congratulations or overly optimistic judgments and a tendency of elderly-oriented over disability. Through the analysis of these themes, this paper concludes with implications to advance the development of information accessibility for disability.

Hidden Barriers to Marketplace Disability Accessibility: An Empirical Analysis of the Role of Perceived Trade-Offs

Abstract Disability is a basic human condition that affects a significant proportion of the world’s population, yet many disability- and accessibility-relevant issues remain pressing and insufficiently addressed. With three experiments, the current research investigates potential reasons for why marketplace disability accessibility has not been universally accepted. Potential barriers to greater accessibility in marketplaces may arise because such efforts appear at odds with other salient priorities, at micro (i.e., consumer) and macro (i.e., firm, policy, or societal) levels. In the proposed framework and resulting experiments, micro-level trade-offs prompt perceptions of personal cost and macro-level trade-offs prompt perceptions of firm morality. In turn, these perceptions mediate firm evaluations, showing that consumers at baseline respond negatively to accessibility. Critically, however, several practical interventions emerge from these processes. Marketers can mitigate consumers’ negative responses to accessibility by employing simple framing choices such as emphasizing who benefits or noting what the purpose of the offering is. By demonstrating one way to better understand perceptions of the full spectrum of the consumer population, this research provides pathways for consumer researchers to further delve into disability-related research in the future.

Parents’ Mental Health Detection Having Children with Disabilities Using Machine Learning Technique

The journey of parents raising children with disabilities is fraught with unique challenges, underscoring the critical need for comprehensive research to illuminate statistical insights that can drive informed policy, bolster support systems, and inspire community initiatives. This study leverages a diverse array of sources, including national surveys, government databases, and peer-reviewed studies, to provide a nuanced understanding of the multifaceted experiences of these parents. Through meticulous data analysis spanning various dimensions, such as the prevalence of different disability types, socioeconomic disparities, geographic distribution, and access to essential services like healthcare and education, this research aims to offer a holistic perspective. Recognizing the pivotal role of machine learning, particularly in addressing mental health challenges, this study presents an innovative approach. Utilizing advanced techniques such as Qualitative Analysis, Regression Analysis, and logistic regression, the research lays the groundwork for a proposed system designed to predict and detect parental mental health issues within families raising disabled children. This proposed system integrates classification algorithms, leveraging both structured and unstructured data. For structured data, a combination of sophisticated algorithms including Random Forest, XGboost, KNN, SVM, and decision trees is employed. Meanwhile, Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques are applied to unstructured data, enhancing the assessment of parental mental health.

Repairing disability access in competitive environments: drivers of inclusive service provision for people with intellectual disabilities

ABSTRACT In many countries around the world, individualised budgets are replacing ‘block funding’ as the primary way in which disability service provision is funded. These models assume that dynamics of competition improve services for people with disabilities. This article presents the findings of research on the accessibility and inclusiveness of mainstream services for people with intellectual disabilities in four Australian cities in the wake of the rollout of individual support budgets. We use the concept of ‘repair’ and the conceptual framework of ‘landscapes of care and support’ to analyse interviews with mainstream service managers. Our findings reveal that not-for-profit organisations perform crucial tasks in persuading for-profit service providers to collaborate with them to improve their accessibility and inclusion. When these services collaborate to repair service access, not-for-profit organisations often take on associated responsibility, costs and risk to encourage reparative adjustments in for-profit services. Not-for-profit organisations are also more likely to be tasked with the relational and interpersonal work that is crucial for successful service repair. Our findings challenge assumptions that free-market competition is the main driver of more accessible and inclusive service delivery and suggest how policy can support more equitable collaborative repair work.

Shared Decision-Making at the Intersection of Disability, Culture, and Language Accessibility: An Educational Session for Medical Students.

People with disabilities and those with non-English language preferences have worse health outcomes than their counterparts due to barriers to communication and poor continuity of care. As members of both groups, people who are Deaf users of American Sign Language have compounded health disparities. Provider discomfort with these specific demographics is a contributing factor, often stemming from insufficient training in medical programs. To help address these health disparities, we created a session on disability, language, and communication for undergraduate medical students. This 2-hour session was developed as a part of a 2020 curriculum shift for a total of 404 second-year medical student participants. We utilized a retrospective postsession survey to analyze learning objective achievement through a comparison of medians using the Wilcoxon signed rank test (α = .05) for the first 2 years of course implementation. When assessing 158 students' self-perceived abilities to perform each of the learning objectives, students reported significantly higher confidence after the session compared to their retrospective presession confidence for all four learning objectives (ps < .001, respectively). Responses signifying learning objective achievement (scores of 4, probably yes, or 5, definitely yes), when averaged across the first 2 years of implementation, increased from 73% before the session to 98% after the session. Our evaluation suggests medical students could benefit from increased educational initiatives on disability culture and health disparities caused by barriers to communication, to strengthen cultural humility, the delivery of health care, and, ultimately, health equity.

Co-design and pilot of a virtual reality intervention to improve mental and physical healthcare accessibility for people with intellectual disability

PurposeThis preliminary study aims to examine the use of a co-designed immersive virtual reality intervention programme in improving access to health care for people with intellectual disability.Design/methodology/approachA co-production approach was used to design a virtual reality intervention in collaboration with people with intellectual disability, their families and carers. A mixed-method single sample pre-test-post-test design examined using a virtual reality intervention simulating health-care environments to improve access of attending health-care appointments. Qualitative feedback was used to understand participants’ experience and opinions of using the digital technology.FindingsThe study found that the intervention did help people access health-care appointment and reduced their fear. Improvements were also found in quality-of-life post intervention. Positive feedback was provided from participants on using digital technologies indicating the novelty of the approach and potential further applications.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study which has used virtual reality to support people with intellectual disability access health care.

Rehabilitation Professionals’ Perspectives on Human Rights, Disability, and Science: A Qualitative Study

ObjectiveTo investigate the attitudes and knowledge of rehabilitation professionals concerning human rights within the context of disability, science, and technology access. DesignA qualitative study using in-depth semi-structured interviews. SettingA large, urban, academically-affiliated rehabilitation research center. ParticipantsWe conducted semi-structured interviews with rehabilitation professionals who specialize in spinal cord injury (SCI) care, including 6 physicians, 3 physical therapists, 2 occupational therapists, 2 nurses, 1 rehabilitation engineer, and 1 rehabilitation psychologist (N=15). Participants were purposively recruited through e-mail letters to members of the American Spinal Injury Association. Efforts were made to recruit a diverse cohort of rehabilitation professionals based on profession, sex, age, and race. Interviews were conducted in person during the 2018 annual meeting or by phone after the meeting. InterventionsNot applicable. Main Outcome MeasuresInterviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and coded to identify emerging themes within and across participants’ content. ResultsPrimary findings show that most respondents were unaware of disability-relevant human rights doctrine. None was aware of the right to science as articulated in Article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Only 2 respondents had previously considered injustices experienced by their clients as human rights violations, yet nearly all were intrigued by framing access difficulties within the right to science paradigm. Overall, participants reported they would find value in implementing human rights in their work. ConclusionsRehabilitation professionals are receptive to a human rights framework. Further research is needed to identify actionable steps for implementing principles of human rights to increase access to technology by individuals with SCI.

Antenatal care inequalities in South Korea: An analysis of health insurance claims data (2013-2022) in a high-resource, high-use country.

The aim of the present study was to explore inequalities in antenatal care (ANC) in South Korea. Based on the guidelines of the WHO, we categorized less than eight visits to an obstetrical facility as insufficient ANC. We examined ANC inequalities associated with age, disability, nationality, income, and geographic accessibility. We extracted delivery event claimed from 2013 to 2022 from the National Health Insurance Service database. By tracing back 270 days from the delivery date, we counted the number of antenatal visits for each childbirth and calculated the proportion of women with insufficient ANC and assessed both absolute and relative inequalities for each population group. The logistic regression analysis for both underuse and overuse of ANC were conducted. Out of 3 416 517 childbirths, 104 109 women (3.0%) had fewer than eight ANC visits. Although the average number of ANC visits reached 18.7 in 2022, significant inequalities persisted across different population groups. The insufficient ANC rate was 28.1% for teenage women, 6.4% for disabled women, 10.7% for non-Korean women, and 15.2% for dependents of medical aid households. Women with low income and those living in obstetric care underserved areas also exhibited higher ANC insufficiency. From 2021 to 2022, sufficiency in ANC decreased for teenage, disabled, and non-Korean women, highlighting the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Antenatal care inequalities are evident in South Korea's well-resourced health system. There is a need for further investigation into these disparities and the qualitative aspects of maternity care services.

Change Is Slow: Acquisition of Disability-Accessible Medical Diagnostic Equipment in Primary Care Offices over Time.

The lack of disability-accessible medical diagnostic equipment (MDE) in primary care impedes the receipt of quality medical care by people with mobility impairments. Cross-sectional surveys and observational studies have found <40% of medical offices have disability-accessible examination tables or weight scales. Although government agencies and advocates recommend primary care acquisition of the accessible MDE, the rate of acquisition is unknown. Using panel data, the research examined if primary care offices audited for disability accessibility increased accessible examination table and scale presence between the first and second audit. Data for 2006-2009 (Time 1 [T1]) and 2013-2016 (Time 2 [T2]) came from 1293 primary care practices associated with Medicaid managed care organizations. Permutations of presence or absence of a height-adjustable examination table and accessible weight scale were analyzed to assess rate of change across time periods. More practices had disability-accessible examination tables or weight scales at the second observation, although total presence was low (12.9%, 7.9%). Practices added equipment between time periods; however, ∼60% of practices with accessible MDE at T1 no longer had it available at T2. The acquisition rate of accessible MDE was low, despite prior auditing. Studying change in accessible MDE presence in primary care offices requires attention to equipment acquisition and its retention. Stronger federal enforcement of Medicaid and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) access requirements, with regular standardized auditing of medical office accessibility, may be required to produce a more equitable health care experience for disabled people.

THE EVALUATION OF THE SPATIAL ACCESS TO INFORMATION OF THE DISABLED ON THE EXAMPLE OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY

Aim: The aim of study is to determine the situation and guide the physically handicapped people to make the most efficient use of libraries, which are places for access to information. Method: In order to determine the situation, the National Library, was chosen as an example. The accessibility of the library has been evaluated with TSE9111- The requirements of accessibility in buildings for people with disabilities and mobility constraints, which are the current standards. It was determined whether the disabled people could use the building comfortably without getting help, and suggestions were made on the problems. Results: The National Library has a plan that blocks at different levels. Since the elevators inside the building don’t have access to every level, the spaces on the mezzanine floors cannot be used. Conclusion: Access to libraries where information is produced and researched is the most basic right of disabled individuals so that they can gain independence. However, there are problems in buildings designed without considering the disabled. When trying to fix problems, it was seen that either they remained unsolved due to structural problems or the solutions didn’t fully meet the desired results. Therefore, disability access should be considered at the design stage.

Toward Access Justice in the Academy: Centring Episodic Disability to Revision Research Methodologies

This article explores questions of disability access justice within the academy through the lens of an online digital/multimedia storytelling (DS) research workshop conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our investigation uncovers how the shift from in-person to online DS methodologies created newfound opportunities for participation, particularly for individuals with episodic disabilities (EDs). Through an analysis of three co-author participants’ multimedia/digital stories and their reflective insights, we investigate the interplay between research methodologies and the broader context of disability access within the academy. Participants’ stories of inventive adaptations unfold against a backdrop of experiences in traditional academic settings that privilege normative ways of working and seldom accommodate diverse rhythms and access needs, including of students, faculty and staff. In light of these narratives, we advocate for an ongoing commitment to access-centered practices in research and work beyond crisis situations. The article concludes that academic research enterprises can accommodate a wider spectrum of participants—particularly those with episodic disabilities—and enhance research outcomes by recognizing and anticipating diverse bodyminds within the design of research methodologies and techniques.

How economic development affects healthcare access for people with disabilities: A multilevel study in China

Meeting the healthcare needs of people with disabilities is an important challenge in achieving the central promise of “leave no one behind” during the Sustainable Development Goals era. In this study, we describe the accessibility of healthcare for people living with disabilities, as well as the potential influences of individuals’ socioeconomic status and regional economic development. Our data covered 324 prefectural cities in China in 2019 and captured the access to healthcare services for people with disabilities. First, we used linear probability regression models to investigate the association between individual socioeconomic status, including residence, poverty status, education, and healthcare access. Second, we conducted an ecological analysis to test the association between prefectural economic indicators, including GDP (gross domestic product) per capita, urbanization ratio, average years of education, Engel’s coefficient, and the overall prevalence of access to healthcare for people with disabilities within prefectures. Third, we used multilevel regression models to explore the association between the individual’s socioeconomic status, prefectural economic indicators, and access to healthcare at the individual level for people with disabilities. The results showed, first, that higher individual socioeconomic status (urban residence or higher educational level) was associated with better access to healthcare for people with disabilities. Second, regional economic indicators were positively associated with access to healthcare at the aggregate and individual levels. This study suggests that local governments, particularly in low- and middle-income countries, should promote economic development and conduct poverty alleviation policies to improve healthcare access for disadvantaged groups.

Assessing disability rights in four Asian countries: The perspectives of disabled people on physical, attitudinal and cultural barriers

Geographers have connected the experiences of disabled persons with specific socio-spatial-political phenomena such as disability policies and laws, economic conditions, disability movements, and welfare systems. However, debates over disability theories and accessibility rights have lacked empirical data representing the perspectives of disabled people in Asia. In this study, the first to explore experiences with accessibility in an inter-Asian context, the daily experiences of disabled people in two Southeast Asian countries (Thailand and Vietnam) and two Northeast Asian countries (Japan and Taiwan) were compared. In each country, 10 wheelchair- or crutch-using residents of a large city were invited to be interviewed, of whom 39 participated. Results showed that disabled people's daily experiences are influenced by the cultural and historical contexts in which the concept of disability has been constructed. Attitudinal and cultural barriers to accessibility should be further examined, and Asian contexts should be included in the political geography of disability.