Participation-based environment accessibility assessment tool (P-BEAAT) in the Zambian context

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the preliminary development and validation of a potential measure for assessing the accessibility of the built environment in Zambia. It was designed to identify environmental features that present barriers to participation for people with mobility limitations (PWML) using mobility devices such as wheelchairs or crutches.Method: The Participation-Based Environment Accessibility Assessment Tool (P-BEAAT) was developed through focus group discussions and personal interviews with 88 PWML from five provinces of Zambia regarding the accessibility of their built environment. The content validity of the P-BEAAT checklist was accomplished through three phases of development with data gathered from 11 focus groups and nine personal interviews. Results: Participants described accessibility barriers which affect their participation in daily life. This information generated the P-BEAAT with 66 items describing eight environmental features with potential for identifying environmental barriers. The P-BEAAT has shown good homogeneity with Cronbach’s α score of 0.91. Conclusion: The P-BEAAT was constructed grounded in the reality of people’s experiences in Zambia for use in assessing environmental features important in the participation of daily life of PWML pertinent to developing countries. Further clinimetric testing of the properties of the P-BEAAT to establish reliability should be conducted next.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• Identification of barriers in the built environment is a critical element in the process of eliminating obstacles to participation by people with mobility limitations.

• Accessible built environment facilitates the enhancement of participation of people with mobility limitations.

• The process of identifying obstacles requires audit/assessment tools to evaluate and measure the presence or absence of barriers to accessibility of the built environment.

• This study shows that the Participation-Based Environment Accessibility Assessment Tool provides a preliminary checklist to be used in identifying environmental barriers in the process of promoting lifelong participation for people with mobility limitations using wheelchairs or crutches in Zambia.

Keywords::

• Built environment
• mobility
• participation
• Zambia

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Mwiya Muya and Jenala Phiri for their assistance in collecting the data. We would also like to thank all the participants from the five provinces of Zambia and the expert reference group who dedicated their time during the development process of the tool. The authors are grateful for the financial and material resources from the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Queensland for the successful completion of this study. We are thankful to the School of Medicine, University of Zambia for the material resources provided during data collection in Zambia.

Declaration of Interest: The authors report no declarations of interest.

Appendix 1

P-BEAAT

The Participation-Based Environment Accessibility Assessment Tool

Accessibility refers to the process of ensuring that persons with disabilities live independently and participate fully in all aspects of life, on equal basis with others through making the physical environment suitable, and easy to enter and use the services and facilities within the community.

Assessing the accessibility status of public buildings in Zambia to identify and eliminate barriers to assure participation by person with mobility impairment particularly those using mobility devices.

The items in this assessment tool have two types of recording. The first is the response options providing “Yes” if the item is present, “No” if the item is absent and “Not Applicable” if the environmental feature or item is not required in the building. An example of “Not Applicable” is the response to lift/elevator item in assessment of a ground floor building which does not require a lift/elevator.

The second part is the identification and recording of the number of items in a section which have scored “No,” which indicate the number of identified barriers in that section or environmental feature.

It will take approximately 30–40 minutes to complete this assessment.

Part A: Demographic information of the assessed/audited building.

Name of the building:--------------------------------------------

Location (city/suburb):------------------------------------------

Year of construction:-------------------------------------D/M/Y

Purpose or function of the building:----------------------------

Date of survey:--------DD---------/MM-------/YYYY---------

Survey Number/Code: ------------------------------------------

Start Survey time: -----------------------------------------------

End Survey time: ------------------------------------------------

Name of Assessor:------------------------------------------------

Signature: --------------------------------------------------------

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Key for determining accessibility status score:

Yes ( = 2): Persons with mobility impairment can complete the task independently.

No ( = 1): Persons with mobility impairment not able to perform any task.

Not/Applicable (N/A) ( = 0): If the environmental feature is not required (for example, a building without upper floors will not require a lift/elevator) then the items under that feature will be scored not applicable.

Number of barriers identified: At the end of each section, the number of items which scored “No” are recorded.

Each section is a standalone with a 2-point-scale of “yes” or “no”.

Only section 4 (under lifts/elevators has an additional score “not applicable”).

All items in each section express a total of 100%.

Part B: Assessment of building features and elements

Table