APHA Annual Meeting Reflection by S. Fields

My Reflection on the APHAAnnual Meeting by Samantha Fields, MPH ‘17

Arriving in Denver, I was not sure how the American Public Health Association Annual Meeting would go, but, I was very excited. My collegues had expressed the gratifying feeling of being surrounded by public health professionals, instead of the normalcy of trying to explain what public health is to other discplines. Attempting to pick out which sessions to attend was a daunting task, considering there were so many per each time slot, and usually more than one session at a time on a similar topic. It was a great experience to get to see our professors present on their research and observe their admiration of the public health community.

Out of the session I had attended, the one that stood out to me the most was the session titled “Approaches to Physical Activity and Healthy Living for Persons with Disabilities.” This session appealed to me the most because it took the topic of physical activity, of which I am interested, but assessed it in the community of disabled persons, of which I am not very familiar.” The highlight of this session was observing the diverse group of people in the room including both those with and without disabilities.

The most interesting presentation in that session to me was “An Examination of How People with Disabilities Rate Barriers at Fitness Centers.” What was presented during this presentation that interested me was that people with disabilities can show up to a gym facility, and be completely able and legally able to use the equipment, but a staff member could be nervous of the people with the disability using the equipment and can send them away. Another discussion highlighted during presentation was that of a disabled person in attendance at the session. She noted that her home gym, non-disabled persons were using equipment which are handicap accessible, yet those who have need for these machines, cannot ask them to “get off”, pointing out a very prominent double standard. This brought up a great point that all machines should be handicap accessible so everyone has equal opportunities to the structural environment at these gym facilities. The questions and discussion had in this session after the presentation were the deepest I had seen from any of the other sessions. This may have been due to the fact that many in attendance were passionate about the topic and had a deep connection to it since some people had disabilities.