Community-Engaged Dissemination and Implementation: Restaurant Accessibility for People with Disabilities

Abstract

A demand for improving access to public spaces for people with disabilities exists. Community-Engaged Dissemination and Implementation (CEDI) aims to improve adoption and uptake of research outputs and relies on stakeholders sharing community insights, priorities, wants, and needs. The objective of this manuscript is to describe methods for engaging community members on the dissemination and implementation of an application (app) suite designed to crowdsource ratings for accessibility of restaurants. A three-pronged approach for CEDI was used and included Participatory Action Research (PAR), a Community Engagement (CE) Studio Session, and the creation of Community-Engaged Outreach Events. Guidance from our CEDI informed our approaches for app rollout ensuring the data is accurate, comprehensive, and useful on a local level. The CEDI approaches (1) supported plans for community-wide adoption of the app suite, and (2) can be adapted by projects focused on the needs of people with disabilities.

Plain Language Summary

Planning Community-Wide Rollout of an App Suite Focused on Restaurant Accessibility for People with Disabilities

There is a recognized need to improve access to public spaces for people with disabilities. Our project used a Community-Engaged Dissemination and Implementation (CEDI) approach to enhance the adoption and uptake of an app suite called Access Ratings for Buildings. This paper describes our strategies for engaging community members in the dissemination and implementation of our app suite. This app suite was designed to crowdsource ratings and reviews about restaurant accessibility, offering valuable data for people with disabilities who want to dine in the community. Specifically, we used Participatory Action Research (PAR), which involved collaborative efforts directly with the community. We also conducted a dedicated Community Engagement (CE) Studio Session to gather in-depth feedback from community leaders. Finally, we organized Community-Engaged Outreach Events to foster broader participation and inform the community about the project. The findings from our CEDI efforts were instrumental in shaping our strategies for the app’s rollout. This ensured that the data collected was not only accurate and comprehensive but also genuinely useful at a local level for the community. In conclusion, our CEDI approaches proved highly supportive. They solidified our plans for rollout aiming for community-wide adoption of the app suite. Our flexible framework can be readily adapted by other projects focused on addressing the needs of people with disabilities. This approach underscores the value of integrating community perspectives to create practical and impactful solutions for sharing information about restaurant accessibility.

Keywords

disability architectural accessibility community based participatory research

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