Perspectives of Fitness Center Accessibility between People With Disabilities and Fitness Professionals

In an attempt to increase the ability to measure accessibility levels of fitness centers Rimmer et al. (2004) develop an assessment tool called Accessibility Instruments Measuring Fitness and Recreation Environments (AIMFREE). Using specific items from the AIMFREE facilitated the comparison of how people with disabilities and fitness professionals view the accessibility environment of fitness facilities. Fisher's exact was implemented to compare individual items for correlations between groups. In addition, Pearson's r was implemented to compare categorical scores for correlations between groups. It was found that of the 108 items examined only 9 (8%) were found to present significant differences between groups. Furthermore, several of the discrepancies seemed to be explainable. This suggests that people with disabilities and fitness professionals perceive accessibility issues in much the same way.