Accessibility Information to Promote Independence for Wheelchair Users

Meghna Krishnan, John Peifer and Vince Gibson
Biomedical Interactive Technology Center,
Atlanta, GA 30318

ABSTRACT

Information describing accessibility of places and services in the community may help people who use wheelchairs overcome reluctance to travel independently. At the Georgia Institute of Technology, research efforts are exploring the feasibility of a Mobile Accessibility Guide to address this concern. In this paper, a summary of current accessibility guides is presented, along with the results from a small survey to learn about accessibility concerns when traveling.

KEYWORDS

Accessibility guides, wheelchair access, independent travel

BACKGROUND

People who use wheelchairs due to mobility limitations from spinal cord injury or disease can often encounter difficulties when traveling and trying to locate accessible resources. While people can find ways to overcome a wide range of barriers, uncertainty about accessibility may discourage people from traveling to new places and from fully participating in the community. A development effort at Georgia Tech is creating a Mobile Accessibility Guide (MAG) to help people who use wheelchairs find accessible routes and resources as they travel. It is envisioned that this system will increase the ease and safety of travel, and it will help people overcome a reluctance to travel and explore because of uncertainty about accessibility. As part of this effort, a review of existing accessibility guides has been conducted, and a survey has been conducted to begin to better understand user needs. In particular, information is being collected to explore a variety of questions. Do people who use wheelchairs avoid travel because of not knowing the accessibility of route or destination? Do they want to know the accessibility of the route or destination before they travel? Would they prefer to use a portable device that has mobile Internet access? What are the current accessibility guides in the community? What kind of accessibility information do they provide? To answer questions, we researched some of the current accessibility guides and conducted a survey.

METHODS

We compared and analyzed twelve existing accessibility guides. In a related effort to determine relevant accessibility information, we conducted a Mobile Accessibility Survey, distributed to 16 survey participants at the Shepherd Center and 42 participants at the RESNA 2003 conference. The objectives were to find out whether the wheelchair users, in comparison to those who don't use wheelchairs, show reluctance to travel and explore because of uncertainty about accessibility of the route or destination. Questions also asked about the likelihood and preference of using different services. The participants ranked some of the accessibility information that they would like to know before they travel, for example about the route (sidewalk conditions, curb cuts and ramps), parking, entrance, interior doors, restrooms, public telephones and water fountains.

RESULTS

Table 1 presents a summary of the twelve accessibility guides reviewed in this study. These accessibility guides differ in their presentation styles, but they all share some commonality in striving to pertain to the ADA guidelines (1). The level of detail and the rating systems vary from guide to guide. For example, parking is rated in many of the guides, but some provide text descriptions of accessibility, and others rank multiple aspects such as number of accessible parking spaces, distance from the main entrance, clearance height and valet parking. Some guides describe seating arrangements when reviewing the accessibility of a theater; height of the counters when reviewing a bank; and availability of accessible motorized shopping carts when reviewing a department store. The accessibility information most common to all of the guides included parking, entrance to the establishment, restrooms and availability of large print/Braille. Other information is mostly in terms of accessibility of public telephones and water fountains, counters and elevators.

Table 1: Comparison of Accessibility Guides
Accessibility information	Guide to Atlanta	San Diego	Northern California	San Francisco	Washington DC	Easy Access Eateries	North Carolina	Virginia travel guide	Mystic Seaport CT	Disney	Wired on wheels
Parking	+	+	+	+	+		+	+	+	+	+
Entrance	+	+	+		+	+	+	+	+	+	+
Accessible Route	+		+	+	+		+		+	+	+
Rooms	+	+			+	+	+	+
Seating	+			+	+					+	+
Counters	+	+						+	+
Restrooms	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+		+
Public telephones	+				+			+		+
Water fountains					+			+
Elevator	+	+	+		+		+	+
Accessible motorized shopping carts	+
Complimentary wheelchair available	+							+	+	+
Large Print/Braille	+	+		+	+	+	+	+	+	+	+
+ Information available

The Guide to Atlanta, produced by the American Society of Interior Designers and the Shepherd Center, is a resource to help find disability-specific services and locate accessible sites to visit in Atlanta(2). It provides rankings for a list of places and services. Accessible San Diego (3) provides descriptive summaries of accessibility of hotels. Northern California (4) has an interactive map and includes pictures and text describing accessibility of hotels and tourist locations. It also covers San Francisco describing attractions, public transportation, and has a map with the location of 24 wheelchair accessible pay toilets in the city. The DisabilityGuide.org (5) provides accessibility information about different facilities in Washington D.C, Maryland and Virginia. It lists reviews by users and hosts a users' forum to network and discuss accessibility issues. Easy Access Eateries (6) is an online resource about accessibility of many restaurants in New York. Access North Carolina (7) has a vacation and travel access guide with an extensive listing of nearly 470 establishments and uses icons to mention features and accessibility rating. Similarly, the Virginia Travel Guide for Persons with Disabilities (8) lists accessibility ratings about lodging, restaurants and attractions in Virginia. The Mystic Seaport (9), which is a museum displaying historic ships and building at Connecticut, provides an access guide for people with disabilities. The access guide is also available in Braille for visually impaired visitors. Based on whether there is a ramp, a couple of stairs or three or more stairs with narrow doorways, the website categorizes the different locations in the museum as accessible, limited access or difficult access. Similarly Walt Disney World (10) provides a navigation-accessibility guide for guests with disabilities describing various services and facilities available for them. The Wired on Wheels (WOW!) (11) Website provides accessibility information and ratings for restaurants around the country. Users can review and rate the accessibility of the listed restaurants. From this website, they can print a form, take it with them to the establishment and use it as a guide to review the restaurant.

An underlying hypothesis of the MAG is that people with disabilities are reluctant to travel and explore because of uncertainty about accessibility of the route or destination. To understand this further, a small survey with three main questions was conducted, and responses were collected from 12 persons who use wheelchairs and 46 persons who don't. Table 2 summarizes the results. The first question was: “How often do you travel to areas - in your community or other cities – which you are not familiar with?” A moderately higher percentage of wheelchair users, 58%, than non-wheelchair users, 38%, reported that they traveled to unfamiliar places on a regular basis. This is a little surprising, but it is probably due to the professional population at the Shepherd Center who were included in the survey. More importantly, it indicates the need to travel to unfamiliar places whether people are in wheelchairs or not. The second question was: “How often do you avoid travel to areas - in your community or other cities – because you are unsure about the accessibility of the route and/or destination? As expected, a higher percentage of the wheelchair users, 25%, than non-wheelchair users, 9%, responded that they regularly avoid travel because they are unsure of accessibility. The third question was: “In planning your travel, what do you usually check for? a) Accessibility of destination b) Accessibility of route c) Accessibility of destination and route or d) Rarely check out accessibility of destination or route before traveling.” The results showed that 58% of the wheelchair users search for accessibility information before they travel; considerably more than the 30% of non-wheelchair users who check before they travel. In other survey results, the most preferred accessibility information pertained to the route (sidewalk conditions and curb cuts), parking (proximity to accessible entrance), restrooms and whether the entrance to the building is accessible without stairs or not.

**Table 2: Results from the Accessibility Survey**
Users likely to	Wheelchair Users	Non-Wheelchair Users
Travel to unfamiliar places (few times a month)	58%	38%
Avoid Travel (few times a month)	25%	9%
Check accessibility of route and destination before travel	58%	30%

DISCUSSION

A growing database of accessibility information is being made available through the Internet. Currently, these resources are presented primarily for desktop browsing. New mobile wireless technologies will make it possible for consumers to access and update accessibility resources as they move about in the community. These new mobile information resources are expected to increase independence and to reduce a reluctance to travel because or concerns about accessibility.

REFERENCES

ADA Accessibility Guidelines for Buildings and Facilities (ADAAG). December 10, 2003 from http://www.access-board.gov/adaag/html/adaag.htm
Shepherd Access Guide. December 10, 2003 from www.shepherd.org/shepherdhomepage.nsf/print/ResourcesGBcontents?opendocument
Access San Diego. December 10, 2003 from http://www.accessandiego.com/
Access Northern California. December 10, 2003 from http://www.accessnca.com/anc/index.php
Disability_guide.org (Washington). December 10, 2003 from http://www.disabilityguide.com/
Easy Access Eateries NY. December 10, 2003 from http://www.594.com/wbdo/dine/wca/wca.html
Access North Carolina. December 10, 2003 from http://ncnatural.com/Access-NC/
Virginia Travel Guide for Persons with Disabilities. December 10, 2003 from http://www.travelguides.org/vaguide.html
Mystic seaport Connecticut. December 10, 2003 from http://www.mysticseaport.org/visiting/information/access.html
Walt Disney World. December 10, 2003 from http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/waltdisneyworld/home/
Wired on wheels. December 10, 2003 from http://www.wiredonwheels.org/sample_review.html

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The research reported here is being conducted under the auspices of the Rehabilitation Engineering Research Center on Mobile Wireless Technologies for Persons with Disabilities (Wireless RERC), funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR) of the U.S. Department of Education under grant number H133E010804. The opinions contained in this publication are those of the grantee and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Department of Education.

Author Contact Information:

Meghna Krishnan, MS HCI (expected Fall 2004)
250 14 Street,
Atlanta, GA 30318
Office phone (404) 894-6361
EMAIL: meghna@bitc.gatech.edu