Rationale: For people with disabilities, outdoor contexts can sometimes be difficult to navigate. However, visiting outdoor spaces can be therapeutic and offer many opportunities to engage in new or different ways. Outdoor spaces are also contexts that typically invite community, gathering and social engagement. The aim of this study was to examine how the potential of outdoor contexts within community-based rehabilitation to empower people with disabilities in their rehabilitation
Method: This study was a 5 month ethnographic fieldwork study including 115 people with disabilities. Participant observation and walking interviews were conducted.
Results: Four
overlapping themes were revealed:
1) Revisiting the outdoors – This overarching
theme encompassed how outdoor spaces facilitate the constructs in the
following three themes.
2) Building autonomy – Participants were
empowered to take a more active role in their rehabilitation by participating
in and navigating outdoor spaces.
3) Connecting with Community – Unique opportunities
came about for participants and led to increased connections with the community
spaces and its members.
4) Embodied learning – The learning that the
participants acquired throughout the study was identified as transferrable to
other settings including contexts of everyday life and their own home
environment.
Conclusion: Outdoor contexts within community-based
rehabilitation appeared to hold potential for connecting people with
disabilities to communities. Despite there being barriers at times, it is
suggested that revisiting the outdoors supports collective awareness and action
with the potential to influence community attitudes more broadly.
Implications for OT:
- Outdoor contexts within community-based
rehabilitation for folks with disabilities can capitalize on the features of
both indoor and outdoor environments to meet shifting individual priorities and
needs
- Outdoor spaces offer people with disabilities
empowering experiences that are part of the landscape for everyday life and
transfer well to other contexts (eg home environments)
- Outdoor contexts and related skills provide a bridge
from individual rehabilitation to community belonging
#OT365
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