The work investigated factors that affect the recognition and legibility of countdown pedestrian signals by individuals with low vision. Specifically, the work highlights that current U.S. regulations related to allowable signal sizes may well create a pedestrian environment which does not adequately provide pedestrian phasing information at intersections to the range of likely users (a user group that includes pedestrians with mild to moderate visual impairment).

The paper was presented at the 91st Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board (TRB), one of the major divisions of the National Research Council, and is expected to be published later this year in the Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Record. The paper was additionally authored by Billie Louise Bentzen and Janet Barlow, the principals of Accessible Design for the Blind, a research, education and advocacy group committed to improving the safety and accessibility of public spaces for blind or otherwise disabled pedestrians.

If you choose to participate, you will be asked to read a one page description and listen to a brief audio diary of a person describing health and risk behaviors. After listening to the audio diary you will complete survey materials online that ask you to rate your opinions of the person described in the diary. Your name is not associated with your data, so your responses will be completely anonymous. Completion of the study should take approximately 30 minutes.

Please email Dani Schenk (dschenk@elon.edu) if you are interested in participating.