There appear to be two types of geographical inquiry that relate to the disabled. There is a geography of the disabled that examines their unique social and spatial distributions as a group of disenfranchised individuals. The other is a spatial geography for the disabled, one in which analysis is focused on understanding and improving this groups’ relationship with the world that they travel and live in (Golledge, 1993) . The research presented here follows the contextual framework of applying geographic analysis to the spatial problems faced by people with disabilities. This type of research goes well beyond the paradigm of social theory or Marxist critique. While it shares the desire to be emancipatory (seeking increased social and material equity) and empowering (seeking positive individual change through participation) (Kitchin, 2001) , it focuses on empirical data about how the use and understanding of space is transformed by sensory deprivation (Golledge, 1994) . Not content to simply identify and discuss “exclusion” and other social inequalities, it attempts to clearly identify the factors that transform and limit this conception and use of space and then to identify how applied techniques, including technologies and innovations, can decrease these spatial inequalities and lead to more inclusion and participation and to positively affect the quality of life for this group.
This type of approach is relevant when “the human-environment interaction mode is constrained-as when disability places a filter between people and the world in which they live” (Golledge et al., 1997) . Their research also reported that loss of independence is a major and humbling disadvantage of life without vision, and that any device that can reduce dependency would be “of the utmost importance to increasing the quality of life for the blind or vision-impaired individual.” Therefore, research that leads to more independence, easier travel, and a more active lifestyle makes applying geographic and spatial analysis to disability issues a worthwhile and much-needed endeavor.
Research by Golledge et al. (1999), Jacobson et al. (1998), and Kitchin et al. (1997) showed that blind people could learn the spatial arrangement of complex routes as easily as the sighted and could retrace those routes as well as the sighted, given a few more trials. This was achieved by using methods such as having subjects point back at landmarks as they traveled or by building models to learn the routes. That research has potential impact on how blind people should be taught orientation and navigation skills and holds promise for making the environment more accessible for this group. Applying this type of spatial geographic analysis and techniques to environments riddled with barriers to wheelchair travel can also help emancipate those using wheelchairs from the tyranny of the built environment (Church & Marston, in press; Golledge et al., 1997; Okunuki et al., 1998) .
The research reported here can also add to the understanding of the effects of spatial restrictions on this group. Previous research on RIAS (see Chapter 2) showed that blind people said the additional spatial cues would increase their independence and help them travel more often. In addition to those findings, this dissertation reports that these cues would facilitate increased participation in otherwise denied activities. Subjects strongly agreed that RIAS would help them lead a more active life, increase their access to urban opportunities, and help increase their quality of life. Two models derived from this type of analysis are summarized next.
In order to model travel for certain groups with disabilities, empirical data on impedance and other spatial limitations faced by people with disabilities should be collected to pinpoint what the specific problems are, what barriers exist, and what cues or information are missing. Once this is known, techniques to reduce these limitations can be researched and evaluated. Chapters 3 and 4 examined these data for the vision-impaired.
7.4.1.1. Impedance to Making Transfers
People with vision impairments willingly traded time to avoid the problems of making a transfer (see Section 4.5 , Reported and Perceived Transfer-Making Behavior ). This shows the restrictions on travel faced by this group, and indicates that reasonable access has not been achieved for them. This is clearly a social equity issue that demands more attention. This group’s initial impedance to make the transfer was much higher than for the sighted group, and their impedance for walking to a transfer point was also higher. After using the RIAS, subjects estimated that their times would be much lower, quite similar to the sighted control group.
It was shown that there was not a uniform search and travel impedance faced by blind people, but that the type and placement of locations affected the degree of extra time and effort needed to travel without vision (see Section 3.5.3 , Modeling Transit Task Difficulty and Mitigation ). Therefore, it is not the effect of blindness per se, but the structure and layout of built environments that can so strongly affect accessibility to public services. Social theorists hold that it is the social context that has a disabling effect on people, and this research offers a way to measure spatial limitations inherent in the environment. Hopefully, this information can lead to better designed spaces. Accessible signage greatly reduced this disabling effect, and its adoption could prove an effective way to use political and social resources to increase the ease of travel and quality of daily life for this group. A more logical placement of environmental features, or the addition of a few more cues, could also lead to a much more equitable world for those without vision.
These examples of applying spatial geographic analysis to disability issues show how this technique can lead to a greater understanding and identification of where and how to commit resources. Foulke (1982) pointed out that we still do not know what spatial information to display for the blind, where to display it, and what manner that display should take, and Golledge (1993) says these are viable research problems for geographers. It is hoped that this research has helped to answer those and other questions.
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