Measuring enfranchisement: importance of and control over participation by people with disabilities.

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the psychometric properties and validity of an expanded set of community enfranchisement items that are suitable for computer adaptive testing.

DESIGN

Survey.

SETTING

Community setting.

PARTICIPANTS

Individuals with disabilities (N=1163) were recruited from an online panel generation company (51%), former rehabilitation inpatients (18%), disability community organizations (13%), a registry of rehabilitation patients (10%), and Traumatic Brain Injury and Spinal Cord Injury Model System facilities (8%). Inclusion criteria were a self-identified disability, aged ≥18 years, and the ability to read and speak English.

INTERVENTIONS

None.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE

Community enfranchisement.

RESULTS

Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of the 48 enfranchisement items suggested 2 distinct subsets of items: (1) importance of participation and (2) control over participation. Principal components analysis of the residuals suggested that the 2 item sets are unidimensional. Rating scale analysis provided evidence that the 2 item sets fit the Rasch model. Importance and control were moderately correlated with each other and with disability severity.

CONCLUSIONS

Importance of participation and control over participation define 2 distinct sets of participation enfranchisement. Preliminary evidence supports their validity.