Anthropometry of Wheeled Mobility Project: Final Report

Section 5.0 Dissemination Activities

Dissemination activities related to the project have included publications, conference presentations, standards development, an online course and knowledge translation activities. Some of these activities started prior to the beginning of the current contract and have continued. Others have only recently been started.

Completion of reports alone is not sufficient to ensure that the knowledge generated from research will be translated to practice. The IDeA Center uses a general model of knowledge translation called “knowledge to action” (KtA model) in all its activities (Graham et al., 2006). The basic idea of this model is that effective follow up activities are needed to insure that research knowledge is applied in the real world. Lane and Flagg (2010) developed a variation of the KtA model called the Need to Knowledge (NtK) model in which research is integrated into the development process. In this way, research and development activities inform each other and the knowledge to facilitate knowledge translation.

This project is an excellent example of the NtK model in practice. It started as a response to a recognized need for information to advance accessible design and standards development. At an early stage of the project, the research team gave attention to the future uses of the data that would be produced. Data collection was automated and methods of disseminating the database in digital form were investigated to facilitate applications of the knowledge. The project have short-, intermediate- and long-term goals. The primary short-term goals are to develop a prototype database that would serve as the foundation for continued anthropometry research on disabled people and produce dissemination products to apply the knowledge discovered. The intermediate-term goal is to provide knowledge to improve existing standards. The long-term goal is to produce a human modeling application that can be used in computer-aided design in everyday practice.

Other research at the IDeA Center has been investigating the needs for information in the design professions, in particular, how designers used knowledge on accessibility and universal design in their work (Paquet et al., 2008a; 2008b). This work helped us to understand how designers are currently using accessibility information and adjust our dissemination strategy. Through this work and our outreach activities, we learned that a database would not in itself produce knowledge in a form that could be easily adopted in design. Designers want information like that found in codes – “Tell us what we should do” they said. Although 3-D design is now common, few environmental designers use human modeling software. In some industries, like the transit bus industry, even 3-D design is rarely used except in the production process. Moreover, standards developers work within the framework of a rigidly defined process in which interested parties offer proposals for changes to standards, including precise wording changes, accompanied by supporting information. A database alone would not provide information in a form that could be used easily in that process. Thus, we decided we had to expand the types of dissemination products we would develop to fit more with the way designers and standards developers currently work.

We developed a strategy that included several parallel activities:

1. Publication of conference papers and delivery of presentations to disseminate information about the project and create a community of interest in the work through face-to-face contact.

2. Publication of a series of refereed journal articles to disseminate the findings of the research in a form that would be targeted to specific revisions of standards and have high legitimacy (through peer review and archival quality) to support proposals for revisions of standards.

3. Holding two international workshops that provided a forum in which people from around the world exchanged ideas about the anthropometric study methods, digital human modeling and the application of anthropometric data in design.

4. Engagement in standards development activities, including the initiation of proposals for revisions helped to make the standards development community aware of the knowledge discovered in our research and obtain insight into dissemination needs and methods.

5. Outreach to all stakeholders to develop a community of practice on the topic of anthropometry for people with disabilities.

6. Development of software that would facilitate the extraction of information for the activities above, facilitate use of the data in human modeling and support the expansion of data collection activities to other research groups.

These activities are described in more detail below.

Conference Papers and Journals

From the initial stages of the project, when it was funded by NIDRR, the research staff submitted and presented papers and presentations to annual and other periodic professional conferences. In all cases, our conference papers were peer reviewed and appeared in the proceedings of the conferences, if there were formal proceedings. We have presented 24 papers and additional presentations in the following associations and conferences:

1.  Rehabilitation Engineering and Technology Society of North America (RESNA) annual conferences

2.  Human Factors and Ergonomics Society annual conferences

3.  Digital Human Modeling for Design and Engineering Symposium (annual)

4.  International Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE) annual conferences

5.  INCLUDE (international bi-annual conference of design researchers interested in inclusive design)

6.  International Conference on Aging Disability and Independence (internationalbi-annual conference)

7.  Transportation Research Board annual conferences

8.  TRANSED (international bi-annual conference of professionals interested in accessibility to public transportation)

9.  American Institute of Architects annual conferences

In several conferences, we organized symposia or workshops on the topic of the anthropometry of disability. The latest examples were a workshop at the RESNA conference in June of 2010 that attracted an audience of about 100 rehabilitation professionals and scientists and a symposium at the AHFE. We have received extensive positive feedback on the quality and importance of the work.

Conference papers are short in format and thus are usually very focused. After developing conference papers, we expanded the papers and developed peer-reviewed articles for scientific journals. These articles are the gold standard of research publications because they are archived in research libraries and available through online searches. Rigorous peer review procedures insure a high quality. Acceptance for publication means that the article has been vetted by other experts and has reached or exceeded their standards of quality. We have published 8 peer reviewed journal articles and have several others in process. We edited two special issues of journals that included articles from both our research group and other colleagues working in this field. One appeared in the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics (2004) and the other in Assistive Technology (2010). These two issues are now key resources for researchers in the field.

The published papers and journal articles are now available to provide evidence for proposed revisions to standards in a concise and carefully documented form. They provide background on the methods we developed for conducting the research, the importance of the specific topic to people with disabilities, the results of our research and the implications of those results for design, standards and policy. Topics addressed include the structural anthropometry methods, the functional anthropometry methods, clear floor area, reach, grip force, the interactive database, building design applications, transportation applications and the comparison of standards and research. The full list of publications is provided in the Appendix.

Workshops

With separate sponsorship from the U.S. Access Board prior to this project, we held two international workshops that focused on current issues of applying the anthropometric data of individuals with disability to design. These provided venues in which people from around the world exchanged ideas about the current issues in the collection of anthropometric data, digital human modeling and the applications of the data in design. In each, we also discussed the special nature of anthropometry of disability and wheeled mobility users in particular, for example, the limitations of using full body scanning due to occlusion of body landmarks by WhMD.

 “The Anthropometrics of Disability” workshop was held in June of 2001 and was attended by 40 experts in the areas of anthropometry, human modeling, data fusion and population-based statistics. Participants included researchers, standards developers, experts in accessible design and wheelchair designers. A workshop report that summarizes the workshop’s outcomes is available at http://www.udeworld.com/anthropometrics.html. It describes advances in the state of the art in anthropometry, the challenges of measuring people with disabilities and recommendations made by the experts at the workshop. This report formed the foundation for a special issue of the International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics titled “Anthropometry and Disability” that was published in 2004.

“Space Requirements for Wheeled Mobility” workshop was held in 2003. It was attended by 70 experts from the U.S. and abroad. The participants represented the fields of anthropometry, biomechanics, human factors engineering, human modeling, rehabilitation engineering, standards development, wheelchair manufacturer and consumer advocacy. A second workshop report was produced and is available at http://www.udeworld.com/anthropometrics.html. It provides abstracts of commissioned and submitted papers as well as a description of the discussion that followed each paper presentation. The presentations made at this workshop formed the basis of what eventually became a special issue of Assistive Technology titled “Space Requirements for Wheeled Mobility” that was published in 2010.

Standards Development

Task 2 of this contract focuses on engagement in the International Standards Organization’s effort to develop an international standard on accessible building design. This task was included in the contract because a member of the Committee encouraged us to become involved in their activities with the goal of establishing an international research effort to utilize our methodology. The budget for the contract, however, only allocated travel funds to attend meetings. The staff effort was to be contributed by project staff. We first had to establish a vehicle for participating. We obtained approval to work through RESNA, which is the designated organization to represent the U.S. in ISO activities related to accessibility. But, after contacting the ISO committee leadership and talking to two other members, it turned out that our involvement was not particularly welcomed by committee members and leadership. They had almost completed their work and were reluctant to open their agenda to another round of development, revision and balloting. Thus, we terminated our effort on that task but also did not expend the travel funds allocated to it for international travel.

However, the project team has engaged in many other standards development activities:

1.  Revisions to ICC/ANSI A117

2.  Development of Standards for Universal Design

3.  Development of new accessibility standards in other countries

4.  Revisions to ADA regulations on accessible transportation

The ICC A117.1 standard initiated a round of revisions in 2003, which only recently has been completed. At the beginning of the revision process, the Committee invited Dr. Steinfeld to make a presentation of the project at one of its meetings. Early in the review process, based on evidence from the initial data collection activities, the staff prepared a series of proposals for changes to the existing standard. Dr. Steinfeld made another presentation about the progress of the project during the balloting process. The Committee voted to establish a Task Force on Anthropometry to consider the implications of the research. Dr. Steinfeld was appointed to this Task Force. However, the Task Force had only two meetings, by teleconference. At the first meeting, they decided to table our proposals until the current work was completed. At the second meeting, the Task Force voted to begin work immediately after they finished the current cycle. Recently, the cycle was completed and the plan is now to begin meetings of the Task Force sometime after January 1, 2011. We expect to work with this Committee over the next three years to develop a process for addressing the implications of our findings (see Section 4.0) for accessibility standards used in regulatory activities.

In 2008, an effort began to develop universal design (UD) standards through the newly formed Global Universal Design Commission (GUDC). The purpose of these standards is to complement minimum accessibility standards by providing the incentive of certification for achieving a higher level of accessibility and usability. Buildings will be certified based on the incorporation of universal design features. Designers will be accredited through an educational program. The first version of the GUDC standards, approved this past summer, utilized the findings of this research to incorporate higher levels of accessibility for wheelchair users than those that are currently incorporated into minimum accessibility standards. To support certification and accreditation efforts, the IDeA Center is developing a series of Design Resources summarizing knowledge from scientific research. One of the first sets of Design Resources is on the findings of this project. Although this is a voluntary effort, we expect that experience with the GUDC standards will identify best practice strategies for providing accessibility for the larger devices and individuals with more limited reaching and gripping abilities. Documenting these solutions will help to advance the field and build a base of support for improving mandatory standards. The first building designed with the new standards is under construction and we will be documenting and evaluating it over the next two years.

Through our dissemination efforts, knowledge about our work has been spreading around the world. The Province of Ontario (Canada) started an effort to revise its accessibility standards last year. The project team was contacted to provide input into the new standards. A presentation was made to the working committee developing policy recommendations. In the coming year, actual work on the standards will commence. We expect that the committee will utilize our findings to address the need for accessibility for larger devices. This standard will serve as a good model for drafting standards in the U.S. standards developers in Ireland are also working on improving their standards. They utilized our Design Resources and publications in their work and recently informed us that the new standards will incorporate larger turning areas that are based on our findings.

This year the Access Board issued an NPRM on changes to the ADA requirements for transit vehicles. We submitted comments on the proposed rules with documentation based on our research findings. We are currently conducting additional research and development activities through another grant in which we will initially be developing tools for the transportation industry that will include the accommodation models and digital models for design of new vehicles. The next step will be to develop a “standard of practice” for the industry in accommodating WhMD users that will include the use of these models as part of the design process. We hope to work with the American Public Transportation Association and/or SAE to develop those standards.

Database Development

Three goals drove the development of the database software:

1.  Provide a flexible tool for standards developers to assess the implications of decisions in a “what if” mode.

2.  Provide a resource that can support human modeling of wheeled mobility device users.

3.  Provide a foundation for future multi-site and international research in this field.

Most anthropometry results are conveyed through tables and two-dimensional illustrations of the body. The availability of 3-D anthropometry tools like the ones we used and 3-D computer graphics provides the opportunity to develop much more sophisticated design tools that can be integrated into the design process for everyday use. Designers are rapidly adopting 3-D design software since lower cost products like SketchUp became available and increased competition. While most designers are not currently using digital human modeling software to test their designs for human fit on an everyday basis, there will someday be a market for low cost easy to use human modeling tools. Anticipating this eventuality, we developed a database with the ability to integrate the data with human modeling and 3-D design software. The 3-D coordinate data for each individual are archived as individual datasets in a relational database. This provides the ability to retrieve and analyze the data in many ways, including the ability to construct 3-D static digital representations of the individual and mobility device (D'Souza et al., 2007; 2010a), as well as generate summary statistics on a number of different body and device dimensions (Paquet & Feathers, 2004).

The visual interface software to the database was developed using Microsoft Visual C++ and OpenGL (D’Souza et al., 2010a). The software application generates in runtime both graphical and numeric displays such as histograms, summary statistics, percentile values, etc. for a sub-group of individuals based on user-selected demographic and anthropometric variables (Figure 5-1), or digital human models of specific individual cases. These individual cases can be selected from a sub-sample using an interactive histogram that helps identify individuals who possess extreme or ‘outlier’ values for a particular dimension, i.e. starting at the tails of the distribution. This provides designers and standards developers with in-depth information on the characteristics and functional abilities of certain individuals who present design needs beyond that of the typical wheelchair sub-sample.

Figure 5-1. Example of interactive histogram of an anthropometric dimension (here overall length) that allows individuals (listed on the left) to be selected for additional analysis.

The user interface allows designers and standards developers to identify who could successfully fit in a clear floor space, or complete a maneuvering or reaching task in a particular environment in real time and who cannot (outliers). For example, in Figure 5-1 above, the histogram has two vertical lines on each side of the distribution. By sliding the lines right or left, the operator can define a target population by manipulating the parameters of the environment, in this case occupied length of the device. Data on that selected population appears at the top right as the bars are moved.

We have also integrated other information search capabilities. For example, a list of “outliers”, cases who are not accommodated by the parameters selected appear in the list at the top left of the screen in Figure 5-1. By clicking on any case, a window opens with the data for the individual selected. Photographs of that individual and the figure model can be accessed from that new screen (Figure 5-2). Using menu driven tools on the screen, operators can define sub-samples to analyze by selecting values for variables like age, gender, type of device used, etc., and the data for the selected sub-samples immediately appears. The data can be saved for comparison purposes. We developed interactive tools like this for device and occupant characteristics, maneuvering performance tasks, grip strength and reaching tasks (D'Souza et al., 2009a).

Figure 5-2. 3D human model and visualization of reach data of a female power wheelchair user.

Long Description: Figure 5-2 shows a photograph of a female power wheelchair user in the database along with the corresponding digital model and superimposed reach envelopes color-coded for different object weight conditions. Using 3-D coordinate data for constructing the model helps to create digital models that reflect the relative size, position and spatial orientation of individual body size and postures, and device size and shape. Reach envelopes are constructed using maximum reach distances recorded electromechanically in an object transfer task. These reach distances were measured in 3-D at five normalized shelf heights in three different directions (lateral, forward and an intermediate 45 degrees) resulting in 15 reach data points for each of four different weight conditions 0 kg, 0.45 kg, 1.36 kg and 2.27 kg (0, 1, 3, 5 lbs.) to simulate reach and object placement conditions one might attempt during typical activities of daily living.

Through data collection activities with two subcontractors, we developed a training program and manual to teach other researchers how to collect the data. We also developed error-checking software that researchers can use once data is collected from a participant to reduce measurement error in the field. Finally, we developed software tools that allow us to complete quality assurance on data sets developed by others in order to identify missing data and errors in measurement. These can then be used to correct data before adding it to the database or delete inadequate data records. This last set of software tools also manages the input of the new data set with our existing archive.

Now that data collection is complete, we will begin conducting other outreach activities that will include inviting other researchers to use our data and collect new data sets to add to the archive and potentially merge with ours. We will also offer use of the database to standards developers and policy makers, including the Access Board. We have considered providing web based access to the database but have concluded that it would take significant effort to support it. Thus, we are hesitant to make it widely available without having the resources to provide the support needed.

We have approached human modeling software developers to ascertain their interest in using the database to incorporate human modeling of wheelchair users into their programs. One company that makes ergonomic modeling software has shown interest but, at this date, they have not been willing to invest their own funds to develop such applications. We believe that this lack of interest indicates that there is not yet a clear market for such a product. Most commercial human modeling software are used for biomechanical analysis (e.g. evaluation of low back stress during lifting, etc.) and for animation. Thus, commercial tools are focused primarily on those activities, not anthropometric fit. We will continue discussions with them and engage discussion with other companies. We may also seek funding to develop our own “plug-ins” that can interface with commercial programs.

Online Course

A self-instructional online educational course has been developed to use in continuing education and installed on an IDeA Center website (http://www.udeworld.com/training/continuing-education.html). This course is designed to meet the requirements of the American Institute of Architects for online learning (the IDeA Center is an accredited provider). It provides an overview of the project, three modules on the findings, implications for design and a link to resources like the reference list of publications derived from the project, the Final Report and the collection of Design Resources. Completing the evaluation quiz sends an email with results to the IDeA Center for review. The online course is designed for expansion by adding more modules. It will be managed and administered through the IDeA Center’s online education program. The Access Board can also use this program for its own educational efforts.