Exploring the facilitators and barriers to shopping mall use by persons with disabilities and strategies for improvements: Perspectives from persons with disabilities, rehabilitation professionals and shopkeepers

AbstractPersons with disabilities face challenges which impact on their ability to accomplish daily activities such as moving around, communicating and fulfilling social roles. Social participation assumes individuals with disabilities live within their community and interact with others. Shopping malls are public spaces used by individuals for various reasons. Here, all components of the social and physical environment interact and have an impact on social participation. This exploratory and qualitative study provides a multi-perspective assessment of the usability, as well as of the environmental facilitators and obstacles to social participation in shopping malls. The results also suggest necessary improvements. We interviewed 15 persons with disabilities, 15 rehabilitation professionals and 9 shopkeepers. Participants viewed the mall as a multifunctional place for everyday use, but at times, also as a limiting place. Multiple facilitators and obstacles were identified; the most important were interaction with shopkeepers and the mall's design for mobility or wayfinding. All participants agreed shopkeeper training and an improved awareness of the needs of persons with disabilities would be beneficial. Multiple stakeholders’ perceptions provide a basis for further investigation about needed changes and their potential for making malls more welcoming and inclusive to all

Creating a rehabilitation living lab to optimize participation and inclusion for persons with physical disabilities

AbstractWe present an on-going multidisciplinary and multisectorial strategic development project put forth by the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of greater Montréal (CRIR) in Quebec, Canada and its members, in collaboration with a Montréal “renovation-ready” shopping mall, local community organizations, and local, national and international research and industrial partners. Beginning in 2011, within the context of the Mall as Living Lab (MALL), more than 45 projects were initiated to: (1) identify the environmental, physical and social obstacles and facilitators to participation; (2) develop technology and interventions to optimize physical and cognitive function participation and inclusion; (3) implement and evaluate the impact of technology and interventions in vivo. Two years later and working within a participatory action research (PAR) approach, and the overarching WHO framework of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), we discuss challenges and future endeavors. Challenges include creating and maintaining partnerships, ensuring a PAR approach to engage multiple stakeholders (e.g. people with disabilities, rehabilitation and design researchers, health professionals, community members and shopping mall stakeholders) and assessing the overall impact of the living lab. Future endeavors, including the linking between research results and recommendations for renovations to the mall, are also presented

On Agrammatism in Greek

(VLID)411726

Using technology to encourage the participation of persons with disabilities : exploring cultural leisure activities in a theatre environment

Version de travail.Inclusive ‘relaxed performances’ are leisure activities where people can participate, within a theatre environment, often with the use of assistive technologies, adapted texts and scripts that support interaction and social inclusion. This paper presents a participatory collaborative research project that examines the challenges faced by people living with disability when accessing theatre performances, and how design, technology and adaptations can facilitate participation and promote empowerment. Embracing a participatory approach with attention given to persons with visual impairments, people with mobility impairments persons with language and communication limitations and those on the autism spectrum, data was collected in 4 phases, from the pre-performance to the presentation of the performance. Post-performance analysis used interpretive approaches and evaluation analysis. Results include the development of potential strategies for the inclusion of people from all perspectives in performances. These strategies include the use of audio description which provides visual information about gestures, props and the layout of the stage

Can training offered to shopping mall employees improve their knowledge about disability and perceived self-confidence in interacting with persons presenting various limitations?

Background: Social models of disability support environmental factors as major determinants of participation. The social environment can act as a facilitator for people with disability. The purpose was to explore if a training offered to shopping mall employees can improve their knowledge about disability and perceived self-confidence in interacting with persons presenting various limitations. Methods: A quasi-experimental design with pre and post-training and 3-month follow up measures with a control group. Participants were employees of a shopping mall working at least 3-shifts/week. Outcome was a quiz type questionnaire developed with experts to measure knowledge about disability and self-confidence in interacting with clients with various limitations. Non parametric statistics were used. Results: Whereas the control group (n = 11) did not show significant differences in scores for either knowledge about disability (p = 0.40) or self-confidence in interacting with people with disability (p = 0.37), the experimental group (n = 7) improved in knowledge (p = 0.009) and in self-confidence (p = 0.03) when comparing scores before training with post-training and three months later. Conclusion: These results suggest a 3-h training, including theory and experimentation of what it feels like to live with a disability, increased knowledge levels and perceived confidence of shopping mall employees in interacting with this clientele

Phone messages affect the detection of approaching pedestrians in healthy young and older adults immersed in a virtual community environment.

BackgroundMobile phones are increasingly associated with accidents while walking. Little is known, however, about the impact of phone messaging on the actual perception of other pedestrians. This study aimed to investigate the extent to which the detection of approaching pedestrians is affected by the sensory modality (text or audio) of phone messages in young vs. older adults.MethodsEighteen healthy young (24 ± 2.9 years) and 15 older adults (68 ± 4.2 years) performed a phone message deciphering task, an obstacle detection task, and a dual-task condition combining both tasks. Participants were tested while seated and viewing a virtual subway station (VE) in a helmet mounted display. As they were passively moved within the VE one of three virtual pedestrians randomly approached them from the center (0°), right (+40°) or left (+40°). When present, phone message conditions were delivered at obstacle movement onset and presented either as (1) text messages on the screen of a virtual phone or (2) audio messages delivered through earphones. Participants were instructed to press a joystick button as soon as they detected the approaching virtual pedestrian and to report the message content at the end of the trials.ResultsYoung and older participants showed delayed obstacle detection times with vs. without text messages. Older adults further showed reduced accuracy of message report for texts compared to audio messages. In both groups, audio messages yielded no difference in obstacle detection time or accuracy of message report compared to the no message condition.ConclusionsFindings indicate that text messages prolong the detection of approaching pedestrians, suggesting that they compromise safe ambulation in community environments. Older adults, who show larger deteriorations on the obstacle detection and message deciphering tasks, may be at even greater risk of collision. Audio messages could be a safer alternative for on-the-go communication