Use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health to Measure Public Transportation Barriers among Older Adults

Abstract

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) is a universal framework used to classify human functioning in clinical and rehabilitative domains. The objective of this study was to examine the utility of the ICF as a framework to categorize and measure barriers to public transportation reported by older adults. ICF coding techniques were applied to sixty paratransit applications for analyzing user-reported barriers to public transportation. Paratransit users were divided into groups based on age (young old vs. oldest old) and ambulatory level (non- vs. ambulatory). Analysis identified 119 instances of user-reported environmental barriers ranging from technology requirements to system/service-based factors, though the prevalence of different barriers differed across groups. Overall, the methodology appears promising. Understanding the complex relationships between functioning and different transportation barriers experienced by specific sub-populations could help identify unmet transportation needs, generate precise research questions, and support the development of inclusive transportation technologies and systems.

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