Integration of the social environment in a mobility ontology for people with motor disabilities

AbstractBackground: Our contemporary understanding of disability is rooted in the idea that disability is the product of human–environment interaction processes. People may be functionally limited, but this becomes a disability only when they engage with their immediate social and physical environments. Any attempt to address issues of mobility in relation to people with disabilities should be grounded in an ontology that encompasses this understanding.Purpose: The objective of this study is to provide a methodology to integrate the social and physical environments in the development of a mobility ontology for people with motor disabilities (PWMD).Methods: We propose to create subclasses of concepts based on a Nature-Development distinction rather than creating separate social and physical subclasses. This allows the relationships between social and physical elements to be modelled in a more compact and efficient way by specifying them locally within each entity, and better accommodates the complexities o...