Physical activity (PA) remains a leading health indicator of the federal Healthy People Initiative begun in 1979, yet people disabilities were not included as a population of interest within the HP initiative until 2010. Despite substantial public health investment to increase Americans’ regular PA participation, little attention has addressed the unique PA barriers that confront the nearly 83 million people[1] who live with physical, cognitive, or sensory disabilities.

Individuals with disabilities are among the least active groups,[2] and individuals with mobility disability engage in substantially less PA than Americans without a disability plus are less active than others with hearing, vision, or cognitive disabilities.[2] Inactivity among individuals with mobility disability represents a public health challenge because physical inactivity is a risk factor for a myriad of chronic diseases including insulin resistance, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and obesity.[3] Furthermore, individuals with mobility disabilities experience increased risk for these diseases.4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

National PA guidelines recommend that people with disabilities follow the same guidelines as other Americans (https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/pa.html): to avoid inactivity with exceptions only for individuals whose doctor recommends less activity. The 2018 PA guidelines[12] note that adults should move more throughout the day - as some PA is better than none - and doing any amount of moderate-to-vigorous PA yields health benefits. Evidence supporting the 2018 guidelines reveals that the greatest decline in all-cause mortality occurs when inactive individuals go from being sedentary to engaging in some regular light-intensity PA and mortality risk continues to decline among people who regularly do less than the recommended 150–300 weekly minutes of moderate-to-vigorous PA. The guidelines recommend that to achieve substantial health benefits adults engage in at least 150 to 300 minutes a week of moderate-intensity, or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous intensity activity throughout the week plus do muscle-strengthening activities two or more days a week. More specific activity guidelines have been suggested for the spinal-cord injured (SCI) population, recommending at least 20 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous aerobic activity and resistance exercise twice a week for fitness benefits or 30 minutes three times a week for cardiometabolic health benefits.[13]

Limited evidence points to effective PA approaches for those with mobility disabilities,[14] despite tremendous barriers to PA[15] including issues of time and motivation plus those unique to disability regarding inaccessible natural and built environments and lack of affordable and accessible PA equipment and facilities.[16] It is essential that approaches to support a more physically active life address the myriad of barriers that individuals with disabilities encounter.[15] The Workout on Wheels Internet Intervention (WOWii) is an evidence-based strategy to promote exercise among people with mobility disability and a randomized controlled trial demonstrated its ability to increase participants’ self-reported time spent in vigorous-intensity PA and goal-directed thinking regarding exercise.[17]

This brief report describes a 16-week, virtually delivered WOWii program offered by the state Disability and Health Program in Kansas to address the gap in community-based programming to promote PA for those with disabilities. The project was supported by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [18] funding to administer an evidence-based strategy for health promotion programming to improve the lives of residents with disabilities.