People with disabilities can find on-line answers to exercise questions
September 1, 2000 3 minutes read
People with disabilities can find on-line answers to exercise questions
CDC-funded Web site offers rehab research
The man with a spinal cord injury or the woman with multiple sclerosis now can find out exactly what types of exercises are designed to help them stay fit. They also can find out if there are any local fitness facilities that accommodate people with disabilities, and they can ask rehab experts questions, all without leaving their homes or picking up the telephone.
The free information is available on a Web site (www.ncpad.org) developed by the University of Illinois at Chicago’s National Center on Physical Activity and Disability. Funded with a four-year, $3 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the Web site also has research and bibliographies available for physicians, rehab therapists, and other professionals.
Staffed with five full-time people and several part-time employees, the center and its Web site fill an important niche in the world of rehab, says James Rimmer, PhD, director of the center at the university’s department of disability and human development.
"During our first year of developing the site, we found out there’s not a whole lot of information out there dealing with the major disabilities," Rimmer says. "There’s a lot of information on rehab, but not a great deal of information on physical activity and disabilities."
Rehab site collects original research
Rimmer says the site will change that. Already, the center has collected 15 original research papers on various disabilities and physical activity. Anyone visiting the site can read these eight- to 10-page papers. Consumers also can find out information from 30 original fact sheets and more than 30 bibliographies and summaries of copyrighted research on the topics.
The center continually will update the database, as well as add new features to help disabled people improve their fitness. For example, one new feature is a directory of fitness centers and gyms with facilities for people with disabilities.
Here are some of the other features on the site:
1.
Physicians and consumers can read recent slide presentations given by experts on disability and physical activity.
2.
People with disabilities can ask experts for advice on physical fitness and receive an answer from the center’s panel of 30-plus rehab and fitness leaders within a few days.
3.
People with disabilities and others can share their problems, strategies, and other information with their peers through the site’s discussion forum.
4.
Researchers can scan through scientific literature on physical activity related to disabilities and learn of any upcoming conferences, meetings, or special events.
5.
Consumers can find out how to contact national organizations, adaptive-equipment manufacturers, or look up references to scientific literature.
Although the site debuted a year ago, it has taken a long time to collect all of the necessary information to make it a useful research source for consumers and medical professionals, Rimmer says.
It’s also taken time to make the site more user-friendly for people with disabilities. For example, originally it featured a white background with primarily black letters. Now it
has a chocolate brown background and tan letters. The change provides a contrast that can be read more easily by people with certain visual impairments.
"Our project coordinator has a condition of visual impairment retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative visual disorder that often leads to blindness," Rimmer says. "He told us the white background is not good because it bleeds everything together for someone with this disorder." The center hired an Internet consultant and changed the site’s color scheme.
"We also will print out all of our documents in braille or large print for people who are blind," Rimmer adds.
The center is located near a braille library and occasionally contracts with the library to translate papers into braille. To obtain the braille versions, consumers call the center’s toll-free number: (800) 900-8086. The number also works for people with hearing disabilities who have special telephones.
So far, the site has information pertaining to the major disabilities, including spinal cord injury, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, post-polio syndrome, head injury, and strokes.
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content