Abstract
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) is a universal framework used to classify human functioning in clinical and rehabilitative domains. The objective of this study was to examine the utility of the ICF as a framework to categorize and measure barriers to public transportation reported by older adults. ICF coding techniques were applied to sixty paratransit applications for analyzing user-reported barriers to public transportation. Paratransit users were divided into groups based on age (young old vs. oldest old) and ambulatory level (non- vs. ambulatory). Analysis identified 119 instances of user- reported environmental barriers ranging from technology requirements to system/service-based factors, though the prevalence of different barriers differed across groups. Overall, the methodology appears promising. Understanding the complex relationships between functioning and different transportation barriers experienced by specific sub-populations could help identify unmet transportation needs, generate precise research questions, and support the development of inclusive transportation technologies and systems.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.