Evaluation of a GPS-Based System for Supporting Independent Use of Public Transportation by Adults With Intellectual Disability

Abstract

Abstract People with intellectual disability often have support needs related to navigating their communities using public transportation. Specialized transportation resources such as paratransit programs or adult service agency transportation are costly and generally non-inclusive. This paper describes a study examining the impact of a GPS-based system called WayFinder operating on mainstream smartphone device on the independent use of public transportation systems by people with intellectual disability. Specifically, the impact of the system on number of training trials for independent navigation of a novel bus route (vs. traditional training procedures) and generalization to another novel route were examined. Additionally, the bus ridership and financial impacts were examined in a city where a provider organization and the public bus system were adopting WayFinder to support people with intellectual disability to access fixed-route bus systems. Implications and recommendations for future research and practice are described.