I can see the first snow up on the mountain tops and the daylight time change is looming. Winter is on my mind. I thought it might be fun to dive into some of the research literature about winter participation and mobility, especially information learned from youth that use mobility devices. We can thank our Canadian neighbors for leading the way on much of this research.
- Lindsay, S., Morales, E., Yantzi, N., Vincent, C., Howell, L., & Edwards, G. (2015). The experiences of participating in winter among youths with a physical disability compared with their typically developing peers. Child: care, health and development, 41(6), 980-988.
Child – 2014 – Lindsay – The experiences of participating in winter among youths with a physical disability compared with
This descriptive qualitative study used interview, structured journal, and photo-elicitation methods with 25 youths. It compared the experiences of youth with and without physical disabilities as well as explored using assistive mobility devices in winter conditions. - Morales, E., Lindsay, S., Edwards, G., Howell, L., Vincent, C., Yantzi, N., & Gauthier, V. (2018). Addressing challenges for youths with mobility devices in winter conditions. Disability and rehabilitation, 40(1), 21-27.
Morales et al. (2018) Addressing challenges for youths with mobility devices in winter conditions
This related study explored winter challenges and potential design solutions to improve participation in winter activities with youth with mobility devices. - Ripat, J., Sibley, K. M., Giesbrecht, E., Curtis, B., Touchette, A., Borisoff, J., … & Morales, E. (2020). Winter mobility and community participation among people who use mobility devices: a scoping review. Archives of rehabilitation research and clinical translation, 2(1), 100018.
Ripat et al. (2020) Winter mobility scoping review
The goal of this scoping review is to help inform the future development of a web-based toolkit to help promote improved winter mobility and community participation.
Please add to the conversation with thoughts, reactions, questions in the discussion board thread. It would be great to build a larger conversation about winter mobility, equipment, and resources that may be useful for our work in Vermont. For example, I am curious if anyone has experience using ski attachments on manual wheelchairs or strollers, such as the Wheelblades mentioned in this blog post or product review. (I have been enjoying watching some of the videos by this father-son duo.).