Contact:
Rosemary Hope
(913)588-5240
The University of Kansas Medical Center
Jan. 20, 1998
KU Medical Center Study Measures Kansas City Fitness Centers' Accessibility to Wheelchairs
KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Getting the gumption to join and work out at a fitness center can be difficult. If you are in a wheelchair, it can be even more of a challenge. According to a study of 34 public fitness centers in the Kansas City metropolitan area, no facilities are completely accessible for people who use wheelchairs.
The purpose of the study, said its director Stephen Figoni, Ph.D., associate professor of physical therapy education at the University of Kansas Medical Center, was to assess how well public fitness centers were complying with Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990.
Results of the study are published in the Winter 1998 issue of the journal Topics in Spinal Cord Injury Rehabilitation. It is the only study published on the compliance of fitness centers to the ADA.
"The results of the study indicate that, while some accommodations have been made by fitness facilities in the Kansas City metropolitan area, many architectural barriers remain that could seriously limit the use of these facilities by individuals using wheelchairs," Figoni said.
This is unfortunate, said Figoni, because "published research clearly indicates that regular exercise improves the physical and psychological well-being of individuals who use wheelchairs."
For the study, three of Figoni's students used a 74-point checklist based on the ADA's wheelchair accessibility criteria. The checklist covered 10 major categories of compliance.
The study found that the facilities were mainly compliant in accessibility of public entrances (70 percent) and least compliant in accessibility of restrooms (none). Accessibility to other areas included parking (24 percent compliance), ramps (30 percent), path of travel (48 percent), elevators (48 percent), telephones (74 percent), drinking fountains (15 percent), area to and around fitness equipment (16 percent) and customer service desk (21 percent).
Figoni's students used a special device -- a sort of combination collapsible yardstick and with a bubble level -- to measure the threshold heights, step heights and widths, toilet heights, curb cuts, ramp slopes, doorway widths, route widths, drinking fountain heights and knee clearances.
The fitness centers that participated in the study were drawn from the 53 public fitness centers listed in the 1996 Southwestern Bell Yellow Pages. Of the 53, nine centers closed before completion of the study and 10 declined to participate. As part of a confidentiality agreement, the fitness centers are not identified by name in the study.
In the study, the students made suggestions to the fitness centers about modifying the facilities to make them compliant. A second study is underway to determine if the modifications were made. Figoni also plans an accessibility study of fitness centers in several counties surrounding Pittsburg, Kan., where KU Medical Center has a physical therapy distance education program in cooperation with Pittsburg State University.
Fitness facilities shouldn't fear people with disabilities as a health risk, Figoni said. "Many people with disabilities are healthy," he said. "They are not necessarily at higher risk than anyone else for medical complications that would impair their health, function or abilities."
-KUMC-
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