“Sometimes I just wanna be outside”: A qualitative analysis of experiences with accessing community greenspace among people living with chronic mobility disability

Abstract

Exposure to nature is associated with better mental health in the general population, but prior evidence suggests that people living with severe, chronic mobility impairment from paralysis due to spinal cord injury (SCI) may not experience similar benefits. Since many people living with SCI use wheelchairs and other medical devices for mobility, further exploration of how people living with mobility disability experience greenspace is needed to achieve equity in access to all public places. We assessed experiences with accessing greenspace reported in a sample of people living with chronic SCI and the meanings they ascribe to these experiences for their health and quality of life. A thematic content analysis of the qualitative interview data from a mixed-methods study of community activity patterns among adults with SCI was conducted. Three major themes emerged: important accessibility features, strategies used to enable access, and psychosocial consequences of greenspace accessibility. These results suggest that people living with chronic mobility impairment have unmet needs for outdoor recreation that can be addressed through urban planning approaches that prioritize input from people with lived disability experience and universal design for creating equitable greenspace access, as well as ongoing policy work that aims to expand access to assistive technology needed for outdoor community activities.