Wheelchair use and social integration

Abstract

This article explores whether persons with disabilities using wheelchairs participate to a lesser degree in social activities than persons with disabilities not using wheelchairs. A secondary data analysis of the 1994-1995 National Health Interview Survey on Disability (NHIS-D) Phase II showed that social contacts (calling friends, calling relatives, and seeing relatives) did not differ significantly between the two groups. Social activities (seeing friends, going to church or temple, eating out, and seeing a movie) varied with wheelchair use and personal and environmental characteristics. The findings suggest that wheelchair use is not necessarily synonymous with exclusion, and social participation of wheelchair users is a far more complex phenomenon than commonly thought.