Validation of the Paratransit Skills Assessment for Paratransit Travel and Mobility of Adults on the Autism Spectrum

Abstract

The Paratransit Skills Assessment (PaSA) was developed in 2011 to assist individuals on the autism spectrum in accessing public paratransit services. Paratransit is a demand-responsive service that often has variable schedules and routes, and may be designated for transportation-disadvantaged populations. It is a criterion-referenced assessment which was designed with three hierarchical sections for the three different paratransit service types as well as a trip planning and scheduling section. It is composed of 37 discrete tasks that are used to make a determination if an individual can use paratransit independently. This paper is on the validation process. The validation process was conducted with 98 study subjects who participated in the PaSA, of which 86 were retested, with 60 retests with non-paratransit users through in-vehicle trips, and 26 retests with current users through interviews about their revealed experiences in using paratransit services. The results indicate that PaSA is able to predict the capabilities of individuals on the autism spectrum to use paratransit services with a 96.4% accuracy and a correlation coefficient of 0.995. The study subjects were found to be non-homogeneous in abilities and skills while the outcomes were found to be highly to moderately reliable. The research findings including the high accuracy rate provide validation that the PaSA is a reliable method for predicting an individual’s ability to use paratransit services independently. However, individuals that were found to only have the six basic skills required for independent travel were recommended to have additional training prior to independent travel. These validation results can be useful for transit providers, transportation experts, and professionals working on issues with transportation-disadvantaged populations.