Physical Environment Assignment - Devon Grisham

For this assignment, I pretended that I had a physical disability that prevented my ability to walk.  I did not actually use a wheelchair or crutches because I did not have access, but I observed the surrounding environment of the places I visited.  A friend and I went out to dinner, went to see a movie, and then went back home to relax and casually watch television.  As I ventured out, I kept the concepts for understand physical environment-behavior relationships in mind.

            For dinner, my friend and I went to Chili’s.  I noticed that sidewalk surrounding the building had a slope for wheelchair access, but only right in front of the door.  The front door did not have a button to open the door for people with wheelchairs.  These are issues with accessibility because access to the building is limited for people with walking disabilities.  People in wheelchairs have to wait for other people to open the door, and sometimes both doors, to enter the restaurant.  This was a similar situation at the movie theater.  In the restaurant, there was a lot of activity with waiters, waitresses, and customers walking around.  This didn’t seem to be an issue except in spots where there was limited space.  There wasn’t a lot of space between tables, and a person in a wheelchair may feel uncomfortably crowded when dining in the restaurant.  Waiters are more likely to bump into these people, causing an unpleasant experience.  However, the atmosphere of the restaurant allows for high social interaction.  The restaurant encourages social interactions between different people.

            After leaving the restaurant, we went to the movie theater to see Nonstop.  As I said before, the accessibility issues were present.  The movie theatre did provide a comfortable experience for both people with disabilities and people without disabilities.  At the bottom row, there were two sections so that people in wheelchairs could watch the movie comfortably without interfering with other peoples’ movie going experience.  It is this that makes the actual theatre part of the movie theatre adaptable.  The theatre makes accommodations for all different types of people, which in turn creates an enjoyable movie-going experience.  One negative about the movie theatre is that it doesn’t allow a person to interact with others, which doesn’t give people a chance to converse and meet new people. This means that the theatre doesn’t incorporate the idea of sociality in its’ environment.

            After the movie, my friend and I went back to my house and had dessert, watched television, and talked about the movie we just watched.  Looking at my house through the eyes of a physically disabled person, I realized that such a person could not live in my house without extremely expensive accommodations.  The house is split-level and two-stories, and the driveway doesn’t have wheelchair accessibility when it connects with the road.  A disabled person could access the bottom level through the garage, but he or she would not be able to access the top floor without outside assistance.  Therefore, my house is not very accessible.  However, my house is a prime example of a person having control over his or her environment and a person having privacy in their environment.  At my house, I am able to do just about any activity that I feel like doing, and I can do it without being crowded by people I do not know in public.  The best thing about being at home is that it is a place that anyone can feel comfortable.  A physically disabled person may not be able to live in a house such as mine without accommodations, but most homes provide environments that utilize comfort, control, and privacy.