EgressII methods

Twelve persons who had a diagnosis of developmental disability obtained information and traveled routes in Powell Station, San Francisco in tasks with and without the availability of additional information provided by the Talking Signs Remote Infrared Signage System.

Subjects:
The 12 Participants were clients of The Arc of San Francisco (Association of Retarded Citizens) and were recruited by The Arc staff according to the following criteria.

1. Diagnosis of developmental disability.
2. Unable to read or have difficulty reading print.
3. No diagnosis of visual impairment.
4. Travel independently to one or more destinations requiring street crossings.
5. Not familiar with Powell station.

All 12 participants regularly traveled independently on at least one bus, five of the 12 were independent users of the local light rail system, Muni (San Francisco Municipal Railway), and one was an independent user of the regional rapid rail system, BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit). Six of the participants were somewhat familiar with Powell Station as they had used it when traveling with small groups. Two participants had a mild hearing loss.

Procedures:
Participants came to Powell Station individually for 1.5 to 2 hours. They were accompanied throughout this time by a member of The Arc staff who knew them well and who provided support and encouragement.

After an opportunity to get acquainted with the experimenters, particularly L. Myers, who interacted with them throughout the procedure, they took a baseline reading test. While comfortably seated at a table, they were asked to read the following phrases, which were printed on paper in 18 point bold type.

TO ALL TRAINS

EXIT - HALLIDIE PLAZA AND MARKET STREET

ELEVATOR TO STREET

DOWNTOWN

OUTBOUND

They were given ample time and encouragement by the experimenter and by their instructor/supervisor from The Arc.

After the baseline reading test, participants were trained in the use of the Talking Signs technology in Powell Station for 25-35 minutes, during which they completed nine tasks requiring the use of Talking Signs. Throughout the training and subsequent tests, they received physical and verbal assistance in holding the Talking Signs receiver, turning it on, scanning to find a message, and getting the message to be “clear.” (If the Talking Signs message is unclear, it means that the receiver is not pointed in quite the right direction or the receiver is too far away from the transmitter.)

Training Tasks:

1. At the elevator, the Talking Signs message says "Elevator to Street." Participants repeated the message and were asked where the elevator was.

2. Standing near a BART faregate, the Talking Signs message says: "Faregate for BART." Participants were asked to use the Talking Signs message to find out whether the fare gate was for BART or Muni.

3. Standing near the top of the stairs going down to Muni, the Talking Signs message says: "Stairs and escalator down to all Muni trains." Participants were asked to use the Talking Signs message to tell the experimenter where the stairs led.

4. Participants were positioned with Woolworth store directly to their left and Emporium directly to their right. The messages were "Entrance to Woolworths" and "Entrance to Emporium." Participants were asked to point to Woolworths and then asked to point to Emporium.

5. Standing facing a wall with telephones, the Talking Signs message says: "Public Telephone against this wall." Participants were asked to use the message and tell the experimenter what was in front of them.

6. Standing facing a wall having the doors to both the women's and men's restrooms, the Talking Signs messages are "Women's restroom" and "Men's restroom." Participants were asked to find both messages, repeat what they heard, and to point to either the men's or women's restroom depending on their gender.

7. Standing in front of a wall having public telephones and a station agent telephone. Talking Signs messages say "Public telephone against this wall" and "Station agent telephone against this wall." Participants were asked to find both messages and then to point to the public telephone and then the station agent's telephone.

8. Standing at the top of stairs leading down to Muni trains, the message says: “Stairs and escalator down to all Muni Trains.” Participants were asked to find the message and use it to report where the stairs went. (This task was used only for participants who did not readily achieve task 3.)

9. Standing on the Muni platform, two Talking Signs messages say: "Downtown trains" and "Outbound trains." Participants were asked to use the Talking Signs message to find out where trains on each side of the platform went. They were then asked to go and stand on the side of the platform where they would wait for an outbound train. During this training period, characteristics of each subject such as language skills and general knowledge of transit operation were also observed and noted.

Following training, the participants were taken to six different locations in the station and asked to provide information or point in a correct direction to indicate their ability to understand and use print signs to acquire travel information. All participants completed this sequence of reading tasks in the same order. The signs and associated questions or tasks were the following.

Table 1. The Locations and signs messages used to identify choicepoints in the study.

Attention was called to the signs and participants were given ample time and encouragement to respond. They received neutral but enthusiastic reinforcement for each response.

Participants were then taken to the same six locations and asked to provide the same information or point to indicate their ability to understand and use the Talking Signs system to get travel information. The corresponding Talking Signs messages were as follows.

1. “Exit to Market Street.”
2. “Faregate for BART.”
3. “Change and BART ticket machines.”
4. “Stairs and escalator down to all BART trains.”
5. “Exit. Stairs and escalator to Stockton, Ellis, Market and 4th Street.”
6. “Daly City/Colma trains.”

Participants were then asked to travel routes in Powell Station with and without information provided by Talking Signs messages. First they traveled two relatively easy routes involving entering either BART or Muni, going down to the platform, and then going to the correct side of the platform to wait for a train to a particular direction (an "Outbound train" or a "Train to Daly City"). Order of routes was counterbalanced across participants as was assignment of the Talking Signs / No Talking Signs condition to each route.
If the experimental session had been no more than 1.5 hours by the time participants finished traveling the two easy routes, they were asked to complete two difficult routes, one with and one without using Talking Signs. The routes were comparable in concept and in travel distance. Each started on a platform (BART or Muni) and participants were asked to get to the opposite platform. The instructions for one of the difficult routes were:

"You've just arrived on a Daly City BART train. Find the main boarding area for a MUNI train going downtown."

Sign	Question or Task
1. Exit - Market Street	Where does this exit go?
2. BART; Muni (two signs)	Point to the faregate for BART.
3. Change; BART tickets	What are these machines for?
4. To all trains	Where does this escalator go?
5. Exit—Stockton, Ellis, Market, 4 Street	Where do these stairs go?
6. Daly City/Colma	Where do trains on this side go to?