Housing Characteristics, Home Experiences, and Community Engagement of People Who Report Impairment was the the fourth colloquium in the series “An Ecological View of Disability for an Era of Community Living: Toward a Science of the Environment and Participation.” It took place in June 2016 and featured presentations from Dr. Craig Ravesloot, Lillie Greiman, and Andrew Myers from the RTC:Rural and Dr. Bryce Ward from the University of Montana Bureau of Business and Economic Research.
Archived Materials
Video Recording of the Housing and Community Engagement Symposium
Slide Presentation of Housing and Community Engagement Symposium
Transcript of the Housing and Community Engagement Symposium
Overview and Agenda
Dr. Ravesloot introduced the colloquium to highlight important research being conducted on housing accessibility and how researchers are exploring it in relation to community engagement and the associated cost in levels of personal effort to participate in the community. Lillie Greiman began the presentation by identifying housing inaccessibility using data from the American Community Survey.
Then, presenting findings from the American Time Use Survey, Dr. Bryce Ward discussed data on the time and exertion level it takes for people with mobility impairments to engage in certain activities, both in and outside of the home. He then discussed associated costs of time and exertion in terms of effort to engage, linking it to environmental accessibility and personal capacity.
Andrew Myers expanded the discussion with his presentation on findings from a Health and Home Use survey, implying that people with mobility impairments exert themselves in home activities more than people without mobility impairments, and that further exploration of the accessibility of the home environment, exertion levels, and community engagement is recommended. Additional research exploring the connection between home accessibility and participation is found on the Home Usability Project website.
Speakers
Dr. Ravesloot is a Clinical Psychologist and Associate Research Professor of Psychology at the University of Montana where he directs disability and health research for the Rural Institute on Disabilities. Dr. Ravesloot has over 20 years of experience in research, program development and evaluation of services for people with disabilities funded through the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Public Health Service (PHS).
Lillie Greiman is a Research Associate with RTC:Rural and focuses on housing, community participation and spatial and demographic analysis. She earned her MA in geography at U of MT where she was a Fulbright student researcher in Fez, Morocco, studying women’s relationships to food and the spaces of food production.
Bryce Ward is Associate Director at the Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the U of Montana. Bryce has a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and a B.A. in Economics and History from the U of Oregon. Bryce’s areas of expertise include econometric analysis and applied microeconomics — including health economics, labor economics, urban and regional economics, public finance, and environmental and natural resource economics.
Andrew Myers is a Research Associate with RTC:Rural focusing on geography and participation research. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in City and Regional Planning from California Polytechnic State University and a M.A. in Geography.