DEVELOPMENT OF ERGONOMIC GUIDELINES FOR ELECTRONIC CUSTOMER INFORMATION SYSTEMS

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires transit agencies to provide accessible buses or equivalent services to persons with mobility, sensory or cognitive impairments. This study examines issues concerning persons with sensory and cognitive impairments, and their access to public transit. The research focuses on the development of ergonomic performance guidelines for visual electronic customer information systems. It is the first attempt to provide direction for the specification and installation of these devices. The guidelines have been influenced by the particular needs of persons with sensory or cognitive disabilities. The approach has been to keep the guidelines general to accommodate the particular needs of persons with sensory disabilities in a number of language formats and electronic media. The first part of this report provides a compendium of current state-of-the-art in electronic customer information systems, which includes a list of model installations and a summary description of several exemplary systems that are in operation. The second part of the report is a description of draft guidelines for the ergonomic performance of the man-machine interface of the visual component of electronic customer information systems. The guidelines have incorporated the comments and suggestions received from over 50 reviewers around the world. These reviewers represent transit agencies, groups of persons with disabilities, researchers, manufacturers, and government officials. The final section of this report includes a brief discussion of a number of controversial issues that arose out of the research activities and suggestions for further investigation. It is anticipated that the guidelines will form the basis of international standards to be developed as a cooperative effort between the United States, Canada, Australia, and the European Community as well as the basis for work related to the ITS/APTS program.