Exploring environmental measures in disability: Using Google Earth and Street View to conduct remote assessments of access and participation in urban and rural communities.
Tom Seekins, Meg A Traci, Emily C Hicks
PMID 36189065WHAT IT FOUND
Remote Google Earth assessments found rural towns have worse sidewalk access than cities.
Lower access scores correlated with fewer people using mobility devices being present in public spaces.
Key findings
01Towns with populations under 50,000 averaged an access score of 42% while cities above that threshold averaged 76%.
02The Combined Access Score statistically predicted the proportion of people using personal mobility devices observed in public spaces.
03In the second study, community population size was significantly associated with curb cut scores and designated parking accessibility.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The sample was a convenience selection of towns, not a random representative sample of US communities. Google Street View images are static and may not reflect current conditions or time-of-day variations in pedestrian activity. The assessment was limited to visual features detectable by car-mounted cameras, missing interior building access or sensory barriers. Study 1 used a fixed 1,000-meter path from city halls, which may not represent the entire community's accessibility. The number of people observed using mobility devices was low, limiting the power to detect participation differences.
Declared interests
The research was supported by grants from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services. The authors declared no commercial or financial conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the correlation between access scores and observed mobility device users as proof that improved infrastructure causes increased participation. The study is cross-sectional and observational, so it cannot rule out other factors like social support or transportation availability that also influence whether people with disabilities are seen in public spaces.