Inaccessible childhoods: evaluating accessibility in homes, schools and neighbourhoods with disabled children

ABSTRACT

Accessible built environments are a critical component of Canada’s commitment to disabled children’s ‘right to enjoy full and decent lives’ [United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. 1989. Convention on the Rights of the Child. New York.] . Although valid, reliable research data about the accessibility of built environments are key to developing related policies, these data currently do not exist. To begin to redress this gap, we conducted a case study series followed by a survey to determine the accessibility of schools, homes and neighbourhoods directly from disabled children (The ScHaN Project). To present a concise summary of the findings that can inform equitable, evidence-based policies, we developed a scoring system for their homes, schools and neighbourhoods. Although our findings illustrate that eliciting and interpreting data from these children were complex undertakings, it is clear that none of these central environments met Canada’s obligation to enhance equity by enabling their access, inclusion and participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Disability
• children
• children’s geographies
• children and young people’s participation
• children’s rights
• research methods

Acknowledgements

This manuscript was derived from the ScHaN Project (School, Home and Neighbourhood Accessibility: Physically Disabled Children’s Assessments). The ScHaN Research Team included: Patricia McKeever, Sue Ruddick, James Dunn, Nancy Young, Nicole Yantzi, Sean Doherty, Henna Aslam, Helen Scott, Lindsay Stephens and Claire Major. The team gratefully acknowledges participating children and their families; supporting Children’s Treatment Centres and a Community Care Access Centre; the Youth Advisory Council, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital; and the Family Alliance of Ontario.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Nancy L. Young http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1739-3299

Notes

1. ‘A household is said to be in core housing need if its housing falls below at least one of the adequacy, affordability or suitability, standards and it would have to spend 30% or more of its total before-tax income to pay the median rent of alternative local housing that is acceptable’ (Canada Morgage and Housing Corporation 2014)

2. GPS data were not gathered for all 13 participants and this data is not specifically analysed in this paper, for more on the results of the GPS data see (Doherty et al. 2014).

3. The sample was composed of participants who met the study criteria (aged 8–14 years, used at least one mobility device, attended elementary or junior high school and communicated in English orally or via communication device/assistant and were recipients of services from CTC/CCACs) and further stratified by gender and region to increase representativeness.

Additional information

Funding

The ScHaN Project was funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research (#178961; 2008–2011), Dr McKeever’s Bloorview Kids Foundation Chair in Childhood Disability Studies and Dr Young’s Canada Research Chairs.