Disability is no longer understood as a feature of the individual, but rather as the outcome of an interaction of the person with a health condition and the environmental factors. The environment consists of the physical, social and attitudinal circumstances in which people live and conduct their lives. Environmental factors are external to the individual and can have a positive or negative influence on a person's participation as a member of society, on performance of activities, or on a person's body function or structure. Facilitators are features of the environment that have a positive effect on disability while barriers are features of the environment that have a negative effect on disability.

There are very few measurement tools designed to evaluate the environment and its effect on an individual’s life. The physical environment is the most commonly assessed aspect that is evaluated. In this section we feature two environmentally oriented tools that have been validated with individuals with SCI.

The outcome measures reviewed under this category include: