Transportation technology developers are invited to a TRB webinar on Tuesday, September 17, 2019, from 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM ET. The webinar will provide an overview of the demographics and characteristics of the visually impaired population and discuss the implications of technologies developed to aid this population. Developers of wayfinding or safety technologies intended to help the visually impaired may make incorrect assumptions that lead to interfaces or products that are too complex for users and don’t address the real problems the population faces. Presenters will provide research-based information about the evaluation of technologies, including what is most important to the visually impaired, meaningful and practical measures of technology effectiveness, and the relative merits of subjective evaluation of technologies and human factors testing.

This webinar was organized by the TRB Standing Committees on Accessible Transportation and Mobility and User Information Systems.

Some registrants will need to pay $95 to attend this webinar.  Sign into MyTRB.org to view registration information.

Webinar Presenters

• Billie Louise Bentzen, Accessible Design for the Blind
• Janet Barlow, Accessible Design for the Blind
• Alan Scott, Elon University

Moderated by: Robert Wall-Emerson, Western Michigan University

Webinar Outline

1. Demographics and characteristics of travelers who are visually impaired
2. Anticipating challenges that might be faced by users of a technology
3. The benefits and pitfalls of subjective evaluation of technologies
4. Designing human factors research in the natural environment to evaluate technologies

The first 60 minutes of the webinar will be for presentations and the final 30 minutes will be reserved for audience questions.

Learning Objectives

At the end of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Describe demographics of the population of people who are visually impaired and identify the implications of these characteristics for user interfaces
• Determine meaningful measures of improvement in wayfinding or safety for travelers who are visually impaired
• Describe the benefits and disadvantages of subjective evaluation of technologies
• Discuss the necessity for human factors testing in the natural environment

 Professional Development Hour Information

A certificate for 1.5 Professional Development Hours (PDHs) will be provided to Professional Engineers (PEs) who register and attend the webinar as an individual. For approved webinars, TRB’s webinar program awards Registered Continuing Education Provider (RCEP) Professional Development Hour (PDH) credits associated with participation only to the registered individual and not to other members of a group that view the webinar together. To receive PDH credits, please register as an individual and sign into the webinar from your personal computer. After doing this, you may join your group in a meeting room.  To be eligible for the credits, individuals must remain signed in for the entire webinar, including for any question and answer session following the presentations.

In addition, advance registration is available until just before the webinar starts. Once the webinar starts, you will be unable to submit your registration. Individuals that are registered for a webinar but do not receive their confirmation emails due to their organization’s internal firewalls should contact the TRB Helpdesk (MyTRB@nas.edu) for assistance in signing in.

Individuals registered as Florida PEs are no longer required to email TRB with your license number to report your attendance. Instead, please use your certificate that TRB provides through RCEP.net as verification of your attendance to the Florida Board of Professional Engineers.

Please check with your licensing board to ensure that TRB webinar PDHs are approved by your board.

This webinar was developed in March 2019. TRB has met the standards and requirements of the Registered Continuing Education Program (RCEP). Credit earned on completion of this program will be reported to RCEP by TRB. Complaints about registered providers may be sent to RCEP, 1015 15th Street, NW, 8th Floor, Washington, DC 20005. Website: www.RCEP.net.

Registration questions? Contact Reggie Gillum at RGillum@nas.edu.