This study examined the effect that use of Remote Infrared Signage Systems (in particular the Talking Signs® - TS® - product) has on performance of blind or vision impaired people when undertaking a variety of bus user tasks. These tasks included finding a suburban bus stop, identifying a specific bus and boarding it, disembarking at the downtown terminal and finding the entrance, traversing the terminal and learning the location of facilities located therein, and, simulating the exiting of a bus, navigating through the terminal, exiting via a different door and searching for the boarding area of an express bus about 120’ away on the frontal street, (the bus transfer task). Twenty-seven participants were divided into two groups, one of which used TS® first on specific trials for each task, while the other group did not use TS® on the first trial of those tasks. Our hypotheses predicted significant response time (RT) reduction when using TS® plus higher success rates and fewer errors. It was also hypothesised that perceived stress, anxiety and difficulty of tasks would be reduced when using TS® , while perceived independence would be increased. T-tests on the Response Time differences between use of TS® and non- TS® trials emphatically supported our hypotheses. With TS® all tasks were completed quickly, independently, and successfully. Without the use of TS® participants sometimes failed to complete tasks in the allotted time, gave up, or in some cases had completion times 4 or 5 times longer than the TS® aided times. In the real world, this would have meant that some participants would not have been able to identify a stop or the relevant bus, would not have been able to make a successful transfer, and would not have been able to effectively use terminal facilities. These are significant problems inhibiting the use of public transit by most of the 8-9 million severely vision impaired people in the USA. In addition, use of TS® was perceived to reduce stress, anxiety, and difficulty of the various tasks associated with use of public transit. And, in post-task evaluations, participants on average strongly agreed that, if the TS® were made permanent on all buses and at the terminal, they would use public transit much more than they do now. They also supplied recommendations as to where TS® could be located throughout the city to make it truly accessible for all their regular activities. Although no direct benefit-cost estimates could be made, our estimate is that, for about $150,000, the Santa Barbara MTD buses and terminal could be equipped with TS® - a relatively small amount to pay for the increased independence and quality of life of this disabled group, although the amount could be doubled when we add TS® at selected downtown and suburban stops. Subjectively, therefore, we suggest a high benefit to cost ratio would result from installation of TS® on urban transit lines. There is no reason to expect that user attitudes would change in larger, more complex environments and current work in the City of San Francisco by Smith-Kettlewell Rehabilitation Engineering Research Institute seems to be confirming this. (A)
Samenvatting