Title:

The Movement Movement: Transportation Access and Mobility Management in New Hampshire

Lack of adequate transportation often compels adults with disabilities to miss healthcare appointments or, less visibly, to be reluctant to seek care at all. For disability health advocates, a basic knowledge of a region’s transportation ecosystem is critical – both to ensure that riders can access current options and also to help shape system improvements. Yet, in NH as in many states, the transportation ecosystem is a complex and under-coordinated mix of quasi-public and private regional transit organizations, operating in a dynamic policy environment. Through the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopment Disabilities (LEND) program and related leadership project at the NH Disability and Health Program (DHP) at UNH’s Institute on Disability (IOD), I sought to answer the following questions: • What are the major transportation barriers to accessibility to healthcare for NH residents with mobility and intellectual impairments? • At a high level, what is being done to improve transportation access and what gaps remain? • How can the NH Disability & Health Program improve transportation access to healthcare for people with disabilities through policy, system change, education, or other means? The NH DHP is one of ten state DHPs funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in five-year cycles to improve the health of people with mobility and intellectual impairments through state-based public health programs. Transportation is a critical social determinant of health that also impacts many other social determinants by either providing or hindering access to those services or destinations. This project serves as a timely case study of how researchers and staff at university centers on disability can ‘plug in’ efficiently to their state’s disability-related transportation efforts.

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