INVESTIGATING INCLUSIVE DESIGN OF SHARED AUTOMATED VEHICLES WITH FULL-SCALE MODELING.

Shared automated vehicles (SAVs) in the form of low-speed driverless shuttles have the potential to improve independent mobility for older adults and people with disabilities. At full vehicle autonomy and in the absence of an onboard operator, tasks such as ingress-egress, interior circulation, and securement of passengers and carry-on items will need to be safe, efficient, and independent. This paper describes a novel laboratory apparatus for conducting inclusive design research related to SAVs and presents preliminary findings from an ongoing preliminary study examining the effects of interior design configuration on ingress-egress performance for six wheelchair users. Early findings emphasize the interactions between diverse user abilities and technology design on user performance. The study demonstrates the potential benefit of full-scale physical simulations to investigating a broad range of usability and inclusive design issues related to emerging SAVs.

Use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health to Measure Public Transportation Barriers among Older Adults.

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) is a universal framework used to classify human functioning in clinical and rehabilitative domains. The objective of this study was to examine the utility of the ICF as a framework to categorize and measure barriers to public transportation reported by older adults. ICF coding techniques were applied to sixty paratransit applications for analyzing user-reported barriers to public transportation. Paratransit users were divided into groups based on age (young old vs. oldest old) and ambulatory level (non- vs. ambulatory). Analysis identified 119 instances of user-reported environmental barriers ranging from technology requirements to system/service-based factors, though the prevalence of different barriers differed across groups. Overall, the methodology appears promising. Understanding the complex relationships between functioning and different transportation barriers experienced by specific sub-populations could help identify unmet transportation needs, generate precise research questions, and support the development of inclusive transportation technologies and systems.