REDUCING STRUCTURAL BARRIERS TO IMPROVE THE SOCIAL-LIFE OF 3 ADULTS WITH SEVERE DISABILITIES

Social life can be diminished by barriers inadvertently associated wit h ''support.'' Social barriers were identified for three adults with s evere intellectual disabilities. A multiple baseline design across sub jects was used to examine the effects of removing these barriers on th e social life of each participant. The dependent variables in the stud y were (a) the number of social activities done per week, (b) the numb er of different people with whom social activities were done each week , and (c) the stability of social relationships across time as indexed by the number of different weeks in which activities occurred with a companion across the 27 weeks of the study. The independent variable w as a seven-component ''barrier reduction'' package. Support staff were taught to use each component of the package, and pre-post measurement of package use was obtained Results indicate that the staff successfu lly implemented the barrier reduction package, and that implementation was associated with change in the social life of each participant. Th e study raises implications for (a) assessing structural barriers, (b) modifying structural barriers, and (c) measurement of ''social stabil ity'' as an important index of social life for future research.