Physically disabled and frail elderly: assessing their external environments.

The study reported here forms part of a 2-year government-funded research project concerned with the mobility problems of physically disabled, blind and frail elderly in their external environment. The research grew out of a set of ideas, formulated by Central Government in Wales, which suggested that the Principality has a higher proportion of disabled people than England, Scotland or Northern Ireland, and that of the particularly extreme nature of the Welsh terrain probably presented serious difficulties to these categories of people as they attempted to move around in their external environments. Although difficulties experienced by respondents in this study can be partly attributed to their physical disabilities even elderly people, who were reasonably able-bodied, reported problems in moving around in their local areas. Some of the barriers to mobility, described in this project, are a function of existing legislation not being enforced, while others require new legislation to be enacted.