Comparing Environmental Barriers to Social Participation Between Visually, Auditory Impaired Primary School Children and Normal Peers in Shiraz City (2015)

Background: Participation is an important component in a child’s growth, which is not just affected by child’s functional abilities, skills, interests and family culture; but also affected by the physical, social and institutional environment. Hearing and visual impairment in children may cause growth delay including cognitive, mobility and communication skills. The aim of this study was to compare the environmental barriers to social participation from parent perception in primary-school children with hearing/visual impairment and normal ones in Shiraz City (2015). Methods: This was a cross-sectional and comparative study. Convenience sampling was used and 75 children with visual, hearing impairment and normal ones (25 in each group) were selected from 4 areas of Shiraz Schools. Demographic data and environmental factors of Craig Hospital questionnaire were used. The findings were analyzed by using SPSS 21 software with One-way ANOVA and post hoc tests at a significant level less than 0.05. Results: The results did not show statistically significant difference in the environmental barriers to participation from parent perception among three groups of normal children, children with hearing/ visual impairment (P=0.12). Moreover, there was no statistically significant difference between three groups of children in terms of the physical and structural barriers subscales (P=0.341), attitudes and support (P=0.424), services and help (P=0.115), work and school (P=0.221). However, there is a significant difference between the 3 groups in Policy barriers subscales (P=0.003). Conclusion: No differences in environmental barriers to participation between normal children and those with hearing/visual impairments can be resulted from excessive families’ support to meet the needs of children with disabilities. Therefore, serious challenges may not be created for independent participation of children to reveal the existing barriers.