Inclusion Wheel: Tool for Building Capacity and Public Health Leaders to Serve People With Disabilities

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Health Equity
• Disability Inclusion

Background:

• Public health efforts often overlook underserved populations, including people with disabilities.
• Effective strategies are needed to integrate people with disabilities into public health initiatives, such as smoking cessation programs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the readiness, capacity building, and capacity factors essential for public health partners to include people with disabilities in state smoking cessation efforts.
• To identify conditions and factors that foster successful inclusion of people with disabilities in public health programming.

Main Methods:

• Action research was conducted with a community of practice in Ohio.
• The study involved examining five conditions and nine factors influencing the inclusion of people with disabilities.

Main Results:

• Five conditions (timing, facilitation, reflection, support, commitment) fostered readiness and capacity.
• Nine factors (positive perceptions, organizational contact, coordination recognition, network engagement, collaboration experience, continuing education, reflection time, dedicated staff, population knowledge) influenced inclusion.
• Readiness, capacity building, and capacity were interconnected and supported the inclusion of people with disabilities.

Conclusions:

• Ohio public health partners successfully implemented mandatory disability awareness training for quitline counselors.
• The identified conditions and factors can guide future public health efforts to address health disparities in other demographic groups.