00771157

Component

https://doi.org/10.3141/1671-06

http://scholar.google.com...Hron&publication_year=1999

With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) it has become a civil rights violation to deny access to public transportation by people with disabilities. ADA requires transit agencies to provide accessible buses or equivalent services to people with mobility, sensory, or cognitive impairments. Issues concerning people with cognitive impairments, and their access to fixed-route transit services, are examined in this study. The literature concerning access to public transit by people with cognitive disabilities is summarized in this paper, along with exemplary training programs and technologies that have improved transit accessibility for people with cognitive disabilities. On review of the available literature, the authors noted that there was very little information concerning people with cognitive impairments. To fill in this knowledge gap, surveys and interviews were conducted with people with cognitive and other impairments, with people who trained people with sensory and cognitive impairments, and with people who provide special transportation services. A major conclusion of this study is that, for people with cognitive impairments, technological solutions are not the best solutions to increase bus accessibility. Personal interaction is needed to solve each individual situation with the transit user. Training for transit personnel, transit users, and travel trainers is needed to help people with cognitive impairment use the transit system with grace, speed, efficiency, and dignity. Another conclusion of the study is that to be effective all visual signage must be consistent--location, lighting, contrast, and content of visual signs.

This paper appears in Transportation Research Record No. 1671, Accessible Transportation and Mobility 1999.

English

p. 34-39

1999

Transportation Research Record

0309070678

References (11) ; Tables (3)

Accessibility; Bus transit; Cognitive impairment; Contrast; Lighting; Literature reviews; Location; Messages (Communications); Persons with disabilities; Public transit; Signs; Surveys; Training; Transit personnel

Americans with Disabilities Act

Personal interaction

Education and Training; Highways; Public Transportation; Society

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Oct 13 1999 12:00AM

• ACCESSIBLE TRANSPORTATION TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER PROGRAM: ONE YEAR LATER
• AUTO-ENGAGING MOBILITY-AID SECUREMENT SYSTEMS AND LOW-FLOOR BUSES
• BUS ACCESSIBILITY FOR PEOPLE WITH SENSORY DISABILITIES
• DEVELOPMENT OF AN ASSESSMENT PROCESS TO EVALUATE SIDEWALK ACCESSIBILITY
• MOBILITY CHANGES: THEIR NATURE, EFFECTS, AND MEANING FOR ELDERS WHO REDUCE OR CEASE DRIVING
• NEXT FRONTIER IN ACCESSIBLE TRAVELER INFORMATION SYSTEMS: WORLD WIDE WEB-BASED INFORMATION SYSTEMS
• WAYFINDING SYSTEM FOR TRANSPORTATION SERVICES: REMOTE INFRARED AUDIBLE SIGNAGE FOR TRANSIT STATIONS, SURFACE TRANSIT, AND INTERSECTIONS