Abstract:

This study was designed to test the effectiveness of a visual instructional module and to determine whether or not instruction on common architectural obstacles made a difference in the ability of a person to identify specific barriers accurately and to select a suitable residence accessible in a wheelchair. Barriers were indentified in a home selected for a pilot study and from these a checklist was formed - 359 items covering 9 areas in the home. Ten spinal cord-injured persons were randomly assigned to a control or to an experimental group. They analysed the home on two separate occasions. The control groups received no intervention, whereas the experimental group viewed the instrcutional module prior to the second visit. The investigator used the checklist on each visit to record achitectural barrier items the subjects mentioned from the checklist and items not only mentioned but correctly identified as architectural barriers as far as their own disaiblity was concerned. The experimental group identified 54% and the control group 36% of the 359 itmes, with the difference being significant at p<0.5. Correct responses by the experimental group (34%) on the second visit were also statistically greater than the control group (21%) at p<.01. The results support the hypothesis that the module increased the ability of the subjects to identify barriers to wheelchair housing.