Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects (NSERC partnered)

Social participation of persons with disabilities represents a challenging problem for Canadian and international societies. According to Health Canada, Over 3,300,000 Canadians report some level of disability that poses a unique problem to their health. Recent data published by Statistics Canada shows that the proportion of persons with a disability, aged 15 and more, has increased from 14.6% in 2001 to 16.6% in 2006. For a large majority of these persons, the ability to move independently is essential for their daily activities and for their efficient engagement in their social roles (e.g. work, go to school, go to the market, participate in community life, etc.). However, the mobility of these persons is significantly constrained by their disabilities as well as the environment in which they perform their daily activities (obstacles such as stairs, sidewalk, doors, architectural barriers, etc.). To address these challenging issues, experts from both the engineering and health/rehabilitation sciences communities are involved in this exciting interdisciplinary project. While the experts in geomatics will address issues related to mapping of accessibility information in urban area and its real-time communication to mobile devices of the persons with disabilities, experts from health/rehabilitation field will consider important issues related to definition of the accessibility criteria with respect to specific characteristics of persons with disabilities as well as the testing protocols. The research will be conducted with close implication of the municipality of Quebec as well as the «Institut de Réadaptation en Déficience Physique de Québec» (IRDPQ).