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Physical Environment & Movement/Mobility

Issues Related to the Physical Environment

The extent of access limitations for people with movement or mobility limitations leads survivors to spend part of each day simply navigating their way through barriers.  While the desire to leave an abusive relationship or seek support for a sexual assault may be strong, having to negotiate the physical barriers during crisis may lead a survivor to choose what may literally be the path of least resistance.  The physical inaccessibility of your program compounds the multitude of stressors a survivor experiences.  For a person with limited reserves of energy, these extra stressors are particularly expensive.

Programs have legal obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Fair Housing Act.  For more about meeting those obligations, visit Meeting Your Responsibilities.

Examples of Problems

  • A survivor who uses a wheelchair gets a ride from a friend to a community support group that has been advertised as accessible.  After her friend drops her off, she realizes that the only well-lit entrance has stairs leading to it.
  • A survivor using a wheelchair is continuously frustrated by tight rotation and elbow room. While the facility is technically accessible, they have only achieved the bare minimums of the law. These minimums are inadequate for this survivor because she uses a larger power chair that requires more room to rotate.  
  • A survivor with mobility limitations cannot bend.  While cooking dinner alone in the kitchen, she finds that many of the cooking tools and ingredients she needs are located in lower cabinets and the lower half of the refrigerator.  She also finds that everything is spaced far apart and moving from place to place taxes her energy.  Though it would help her conserve her energy to sit while she works, there are no stools or chairs in the kitchen for her to do so. 
  • A survivor with muscular dystrophy arrives at a community support group and finds she needs to use the restroom.  She waits to do so until the break but has a difficult time finding the restroom.  When she finally finds it, one of the other group participants -- who does not have a mobility limitation -- is using the accessible restroom.  She waits her turn, uses the restroom and returns to group only to find there are only 10 minutes left in group.  Because the break was only 10 minutes and it took her 40 minutes to use the restroom, she has missed the last part of group.

Suggested Solutions

  • Accommodations for people with movement and mobility limitations can be solved in multiple ways. Universal Design is a sensible framework for thinking about achieving accessibility but also creating a more welcoming and comfortable environment for everyone. Separate solutions for people with limitations becomes unnecessary. By anticipating the range of functional limitations and appreciating the opportunity to minimize disability, every investment in the improvement of the physical environment enhances everyone’s experience. Please see suggested best practices in Creating Welcoming Environments: Physical Environments for details.
  • Place groceries, cooking utensils, and other items in cabinets and drawers where they are accessible to everyone and will not require bending or squatting.  Place a lightweight stool in the kitchen and other workplaces to allow people who need to sit to do so.
  • When providers use other organizations’ buildings for community meetings, prevention workshops, or support groups, providers should investigate the paths of travel in the building to the meeting space, to restrooms, and to drinking fountains. For people with movement and mobility limitations, a redundancy of wayfinding clues is helpful for finding paths of travel through a building. Obvious cues reduce people’s anxiety and the amount of time it requires to find their way.  It is also helpful to remind participants to reserve the accessible restroom for people with mobility and movement limitations.