Radial inhomogeneity scale lengths for radial electric field, ion density, and magnetic-field-aligned (parallel) electron-drift velocity have been measured and interpreted in magnetized, low-temperature, collisionless plasma. The effect of a narrow layer of inhomogeneity in these parameters on the excitation of electrostatic ion-cyclotron waves is investigated. When the ion Larmor radius ρi is on the order of, or larger than, the half-width at half-maximum σr{Er} of the Gaussian-like, radially localized, radial electric-field profile Er(r), the radial profile of the azimuthal ion rotation velocity, measured using laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), has a peak that, because of finite-Larmor-radius effects, is significantly lower than the peak of the combined radial profile of the E×B and diamagnetic drift velocities. Results of an experimentally validated test-particle simulation are presented and applied using experimentally relevant electric-field profiles. Two experimental configurations are explored for which the ions enter into the electric field at different rates. In one configuration, the ions experience an effectively adiabatic increase in electric-field strength. In the other configuration, the increase in electric-field strength is effectively instantaneous. The simulation reproduces both the main features of the radial profile of LIF-measured ion flow and the observed density depletion in regions of relatively high plasma potential for experimental conditions in which no waves were observed. The density depletion is interpreted as resulting from the finite-Larmor-radius ion orbits in the presence of an inhomogeneous electric field with radial scale length σr{Er}≈ρi.