SEEKING PARTICIPANTS
How does mobility disability impact your life? I’m looking for people between the ages of 18-64, who are currently working (part-time, full-time, or self-employed) or looking for work, and have severe difficulty walking or climbing stairs. If participants live with a significant other, their partner will also be invited to participate. Members of the study will be asked for a 60-90 minute interview about transportation, home and work environments. Participants will be paid $40 at the completion of the interview.
If you are interested in sharing your experience, please contact Jessica Murray: jmurray@gc.cuny.edu. Interviews will be conducted until July 11, 2014.
Privacy and confidentiality will be ensured by removing identifiable information from notes, transcripts and the final analysis.
BACKGROUND AND MOTIVATION
A long-time interest of mine is the psychological impact of different commute modes, and the ways in which the experience of the commute spills over into work and home domains. The day in, day out experience of getting to work deserves more attention, because it can have a huge impact on overall quality of life. During the course of researching this topic for a class I took at the Graduate Center last spring, Critical Social Environmental Policy, I realized that mode choice in New York City is very limited for people with mobility disabilities. As I started digging into the transportation policy issues impacting people with mobility disabilities, I also discovered disparities in accessibility in the other areas of life that interest me; work and home. While these problems are big, they’re not insurmountable, but it seems there is a lack of political will to tackle them. The people most impacted typically don’t have the fiscal power needed to hold businesses, building developers, or transportation entities accountable. I outlined many of these topics in my final paper for the course, Issues Impacting Work Life Quality for People with Mobility Limitations Living in NYC.
I’m currently expanding this paper for my thesis, to include details about the unfolding victory for taxi accessibility, and to include the latest census numbers. More importantly, I want to hear some different perspectives on the real impact of the built environment on quality of life, and hear what kinds of policy ideas could improve home, work, and transportation environments for people with a mobility disability. My goal is to explore a variety of experiences, see how people view environmental limitations, and see what policy areas have the greatest real impact.
