People with disabilities face barriers that prevent them from accessing indoor recreation programs and spaces in community centers. These barriers are external, meaning they are external to people with disabilities. Examples of external barriers include physical limitations in the built environment and the attitudinal beliefs of those without disabilities. Increasing accessibility is a process that involves step by step changes, while taking into account the abilities and interests of people with disabilities (Riley et al., 2008). Some ways to remove barriers and make community center programs and spaces more accessible include working with organizations that support people with disabilities and creating accessiblity plans to remove specific barriers (Charles & Michael, 2017 as cited in Gostic & Beyer, 1993). Another way to remove barriers is to integrate inclusive health, which is to make existing programs and services more accessible by providing equitable access and full participation (Villasencio, 2021). Primary research was conducted to find what barriers exist in recreation spaces and programs: recreation staff were interviewed, accessibility documents were analyzed, and recreation programs were observed. Some findings include implementing staff training and the importance of working with organizations that support people with disabilities. Other findings include implementing segregated programs and working to retrofit older infrastructure to remove barriers. From the research, the data shows that there are barriers in recreation for people with disabilities, but they can be removed. Some recommendations to remove them include implementing awareness training for staff, increase programming for people with disabilities, prioritize which physical barriers need to be removed in the built environment, and provide resources for people with disabilities to access subsidies or find specialized programs.
