“It’s Not Usable for Him”: An Exploration of Diverse Users’ Experiences of Accessibility, Usability, and Inclusion in Gyms

Gym-based exercise is associated with many health benefits, including enhanced physical functioning, improved mental well-being, and reduced morbidity. Such benefits may be of particular interest to people with a disability (PWD) who are at twice the risk of developing conditions, such as depression, diabetes, and stroke. Health disparities among PWD arise from discriminatory environments, which limit their opportunity to access resources. Little effort has been made to advance equitable exercise opportunties among PWD in gyms. Accessibility assessments often focus on quantifiable characteristics of the built environment, overlooking cognitive and social accessibility, and the value of lived experience. A think aloud protocol involving a series of tasks completed within two gyms was adopted to gain an understanding of diverse participants’ perceptions and experiences of accessibility, usability, and inclusion. Directed content analyses of think aloud transcripts were guided by the Universal Design-based framework. The framework consists of a category for physical-spatial, sensorial-cognitive, and social environments, ensuring analyses yielded results across environmental domains. Thirty-nine participants (15 male, 23 female) between 18 and 68 years completed the study. Nineteen participants (~49%) had a disability and/or impairment. Five themes illustrated how participants maneuvered, understood, and felt within the gyms, reflecting physical (e.g., amount of equipment), cognitive (e.g., accessible information), and social factors (e.g., interpersonal interactions). Identifying environmental domain specific factors provided an understanding of how design and fitness professionals, scholars, and policymakers could develop functionally inclusive gyms for people with and without a disability to support participation in exercise and health for all.