The Silent Majority: Understanding and Supporting Access and Inclusion for People with Disabilities Living in Predominantly Low-Resource Communities

Abstract

People with disabilities are often isolated from their community due to issues with accessibility and inclusion, which are worse in low-resource communities. Creating meaningful change will require an understanding of strategies that work at a community-wide level to foster community engagement among people with disabilities. This study utilized a qualitative grounded theory approach to identify barriers and facilitators of community access and inclusion of people with disabilities from the perspectives of 12 neighborhood presidents of low-resource areas within the state of Alabama in the United States. Four themes were identified: (1) community engagement is a process from accessibility to inclusion; (2) knowledge supports people’s needs and empowers systemic changes to policies and laws; (3) neighborhood resources beget further resources; and (4) change necessitates benevolent leadership. Based on these themes, we generated a substantive theory called the Neighborhood Engagement Theory, which health professionals can utilize to support neighborhood presidents in creating systemic change for people with disabilities.