Assessing and Comparing the Accessibility of Community Environments: A Feasibility Study

The Americans with Disabilities Act was established to promote universal access to community environments. Accessibility is not included in established community assessment systems, however, and there are few data comparing accessibility across cities. This lack of data hampers public policy, restricts consumer choice, and limits the development of a science of the environment and participation.

We developed a protocol for directly observing accessibility of public places and rated 226 randomly selected businesses in 19 towns in Montana.

Combining accessibility ratings across nine categories of accessibility, Montana’s small cities and towns achieved an overall accessibility rating of 2.66 on a four-point scale; equivalent to a D +  using a civil engineering grading framework. Exploratory analyses showed significant relationships between accessibility ratings and community economic variables. Surprisingly, our analyses showed a negative correlation with percent of city residents with disability.

It is feasible to assess accessibility of communities in a standard format. Systematic and longitudinal assessments of the accessibility of community infrastructure can contribute to community planning and development. There is a need to create a program to routinely monitor community environments as they change, integrate the findings into public policy and practice, and use the data as a basis for advancing a science of the environment.