People with Disabilities in the
National Survey of Recreation and the Environment
Back to Summary Report
Key Points
- Patterns of participation in outdoor recreation were similar across most activities for
people with and without disabilities. Activities with the highest rates of participation
among people without disabilities also tended to show the highest rates of participation
among people with disabilities.
- Overall, people with disabilities participated at rates equal to, or somewhat lower
than people without disabilities.
- In most outdoor recreation activities, people with disabilities in middle age groups
reported less frequent participation than people without disabilities; however in the
youngest and oldest age groups, people with disabilities participated at rates equal to,
or greater than, people without disabilities.
- In nature study activities, people with disabilities participated at rates higher than
those of people without disabilities.
- Although most people with disabilities reported experiencing few barriers to outdoor
recreation, barriers of health conditions and physical limitations were experienced by
the majority people with disabilities.
- Most people with disabilities did not report needing accommodations or assistive devices
for participation in outdoor recreation. Among those requiring assistance, the most common
assistive devices/accommodations were mobility aids, a companion/assistant, and architectural
modifications.
- Attitudes toward accessibility seem to indicate that people with disabilities generally
felt that no outdoor recreation area should be completely "inaccessible;" however agree that
more primitive areas will be generally less accessible than less primitive areas.
- In addition, people with disabilities tended to favor preservation of the environment
over accessibility in the National Wilderness Preservation System; however, there was
general agreement that environmental modifications in NWPS areas should be made accessible
for people with disabilities.
