Citation

Earl R, Morris S, Girdler S, Falkmer T, Cowan G, Falkmer M. Res. Dev. Disabil. 2019; 94: e103493.

Affiliation

School of Occupational Therapy & Social Work, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA, 6845, Australia; School of Education and Communication, CHILD Programme, Swedish Institute for Disability Research, Jönköping University, Jönköping, SE-551 11, Sweden. Electronic address: Marita.Falkmer@curtin.edu.au.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ridd.2019.103493

PMID

31563028

Abstract

People with intellectual disability (ID) may find shared zones troublesome to negotiate because of the lack of the traditional clearly defined rules and boundaries. With the built environment identified as a barrier to active travel and community access, it is vital to explore how pedestrians with ID navigate shared zones to ensure that this group is not placed in harm's way or discouraged from active travel because of the implications of shared zones. This study investigated the visual strategies of 19 adults with ID and 21 controls who wore head mounted eye trackers in a Shared Zone and at a zebra crossing (as a contrast traffic environment). In total 4750 valid fixations were analysed. Participants with ID fixated on traffic relevant objects at a rate of 68 percent of the control participants. Furthermore, the males with ID were 9(4.4-18.7) times more likely to fixate on non-traffic relevant objects compared with traffic relevant objects, much higher odds than that of females with ID 1.8(0.4-1.7). Zebra crossings appeared to act as a cue, drawing pedestrians' visual attention to the traffic environment, with both groups more likely to look at traffic relevant objects on/at the zebra crossing (66%: 34%). Future implementation of shared zones needs to be carefully considered in relation to the safety of road users with ID and their capacity to identify and assess salient environmental information.

Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Eye tracking; Intellectual disability; Shared zones; Traffic safety