Following are some key findings from the study:

• Patterns of participation in outdoor recreation were similar across most activities for people with and without disabilities. Activities with the highest rates of participation among people without disabilities also tended to show the highest rates of participation among people with disabilities.
• Overall, people with disabilities participated at rates equal to, or somewhat lower than, people without disabilities.
• In most outdoor recreation activities, people with disabilities in middle age groups reported less frequent participation than people without disabilities; however, in the youngest and oldest age groups, people with disabilities participated at rates equal to, or greater than, people without disabilities.
• In nature study activities, people with disabilities participated at rates higher than those of people without disabilities.
• Although most people with disabilities reported experiencing few barriers to outdoor recreation, barriers of health conditions and physical limitations were experienced by the majority of people with disabilities.
• Most people with disabilities did not report needing accommodations or assistive devices for participation in outdoor recreation. Among those requiring assistance, the most common assistive devices/accommodations were mobility aids, a companion/assistant and architectural modifications.
• Attitudes toward accessibility seem to indicate that people with disabilities generally felt that no outdoor recreation area should be completely 'inaccessible;' however, they agreed that more primitive areas will be generally less accessible than less primitive areas.
• In addition, people with disabilities tended to favor preservation of the environment over accessibility in the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) (www.wilderness.net); however, there was general agreement that environmental modifications in NWPS areas should be made accessible for people with disabilities.

In addition to the key findings, the report addresses more specifically the activity participation patterns of people with disabilities, barriers to participation in outdoor recreation for people with disabilities, use of adaptive devices or assistance needed for participation in outdoor recreation and attitudes towards accessibility in outdoor recreation settings.

The Executive Summary of 'People with Disabilities: National Survey of Recreation and the Environment' can be accessed on the NCA Web site at www.ncaonline.org. The full report is also available through NCA.