Barriers to accessing leisure opportunities for people with learning disabilities

✍ Scribed by Suzie Beart; Debbie Hawkins; Biza Stenfert Kroese; Paul Smithson; Inigo Tolosa

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2001
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 80 KB
• Volume: 29
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1354-4187
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1468-3156.2001.00109.x

✦ Synopsis

Summary

Five focus groups (i.e. small discussion groups consisting of service users) were held within a variety of specialized services for people with learning disabilities. The aim of these focus groups was to determine which leisure opportunities young people and adults (≥ 16 years) with a mild/moderate learning disability currently accessed, which activities they would wish to access and the perceived barriers to leisure access. It was found that participants undertook a wide variety of community‐based leisure pursuits. Many of these activities took place in day centre time, as opposed to genuine leisure time. A range of activities which participants would wish to try in the future were identified. However, there were a number of perceived barriers which would make it difficult to access these opportunities. All five groups identified these barriers as being a lack of transport and carer/friend support. This is in line with previous research. Only two out of the five groups saw money as a barrier to accessing leisure opportunities.