Mapping stairwell accessibility in Vancouver's downtown core

BACKGROUND

The increase in obesity is due in part to changes in the environment that affect behaviours such as physical activity. Stairwells in buildings present an opportunity to increase physical activity in the workplace. We characterized the stairwell accessibility in business buildings in the downtown core of Vancouver.

METHODS

Characteristics of the stairwells in business buildings with two or more floors were obtained. Stairwells were characterized based on their visibility from the main entrance, signage, presence of physical door, and interior lighting and space. Building completion year was obtained from the Vancouver City Hall.

RESULTS

A total of 138 buildings in the pre-designated area were eligible for characterization. Due to security concerns, only 123 were assessed. Of those assessed, 54% had stairwells visible from the main entrance, 33% had locked doors and only 18% had signs on the stairwell doors. Of the 83 stairwells that were accessible, 54% and 36% were considered brightly lit and spacious enough for two people, respectively. Only 11% of the buildings studied had accessible stairwells that met all of our accessibility criteria. More recently built buildings tended to have a higher proportion of locked stairwell doors; otherwise, building completion year was not associated with any of the accessibility criteria.

INTERPRETATION

Based on their environmental characteristics, very few buildings were set up in a way that encouraged stair use. For the work environment to be conducive to increased physical activity, building policy will need to consider the implications of design on activity patterns.

Evaluating the effects of bilingual traffic signs on driver performance and safety

Variable message signs (VMS) can provide immediate and relevant information to road users and bilingual VMS can provide great flexibility in countries where a significant proportion of the population speak an alternative language to the majority. The study reported here evaluates the effect of various bilingual VMS configurations on driver behaviour and safety. The aim of the study was to determine whether or not the visual distraction associated with bilingual VMS signs of different configurations (length, complexity) impacted on driving performance. A driving simulator was used to allow full control over the scenarios, road environment and sign configuration and both longitudinal and lateral driver performance was assessed. Drivers were able to read one- and two-line monolingual signs and two-line bilingual signs without disruption to their driving behaviour. However, drivers significantly reduced their speed in order to read four-line monolingual and four-line bilingual signs, accompanied by an increase in headway to the vehicle in front. This implies that drivers are possibly reading the irrelevant text on the bilingual sign and various methods for reducing this effect are discussed.

Innovative Approaches to Reducing Nurses' Distractions During Medication Administration

BACKGROUND

Contributing factors to medication errors include distractions, lack of focus, and failure to follow standard operating procedures. The nursing unit is vulnerable to a multitude of interruptions and distractions that affect the working memory and the ability to focus during critical times. Methods that prevent these environmental effects on nurses can help avert medication errors.

METHODS

A process improvement study examined the effects of standard protocols and visible signage within a hospital setting. The project was patterned after another study using similar techniques. Rapid Cycle Testing was used as one of the strategies for this process improvement project. Rapid Cycle Tests have become a part of the newly adopted Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control steps at this particular hospital.

RESULTS

As a result, a medication administration check-list improved focus and standardized practice. Visible signage also reduced nurses' distractions and improved focus.

CONCLUSION

The results provide evidence that protocol checklists and signage can be used as reminders to reduce distractions, and are simple, inexpensive tools for medication safety.

Tactile signage leads the way

As implementation of Part III of the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act draws closer, service providers are looking to their obligations and how they can fulfil them in a cost-effective way. Most sighted people assume that blind or visually impaired people read Braille and therefore Braille signage is a perfectly adequate measure. In fact this is a misconception.

Automatic detection and recognition of signs from natural scenes

In this paper, we present an approach to automatic detection and recognition of signs from natural scenes, and its application to a sign translation task. The proposed approach embeds multiresolution and multiscale edge detection, adaptive searching, color analysis, and affine rectification in a hierarchical framework for sign detection, with different emphases at each phase to handle the text in different sizes, orientations, color distributions and backgrounds. We use affine rectification to recover deformation of the text regions caused by an inappropriate camera view angle. The procedure can significantly improve text detection rate and optical character recognition (OCR) accuracy. Instead of using binary information for OCR, we extract features from an intensity image directly. We propose a local intensity normalization method to effectively handle lighting variations, followed by a Gabor transform to obtain local features, and finally a linear discriminant analysis (LDA) method for feature selection. We have applied the approach in developing a Chinese sign translation system, which can automatically detect and recognize Chinese signs as input from a camera, and translate the recognized text into English.

Comprehension of safety signs for construction workers: comparison of existing and newly designed signs

The comprehension of safety signs for construction workers was compared among existing and improved designs. Safety signs considered were existing signs, existing signs improved by adding text, existing signs improved by adding/changing pictorials, and existing signs improved by adding/changing pictorials and text. Three hundred and eighty-four construction workers were randomized for assignments into four groups. They were working on nine constructions work sites randomly selected from work sites located in Bangkok, Thailand. The number of workers in each work site was calculated for the proportion of the sample size and then they were randomized so that equal numbers of workers were included in the four groups. The four types of safety signs and an interview form were used to test their comprehension of safety signs. For data analysis, percentages, means, standard deviations, the chi-square test, the one-way ANOVA and LSD tests were applied. The results showed that the mean comprehension scores of the existing signs improved by adding text, the existing signs improved by adding/changing pictorials, and the existing signs improved by adding/changing pictorials and text were significantly higher than those of the existing signs. In addition, the mean comprehension scores of the existing signs improved by adding text and the existing signs improved by adding/changing pictorials and text were significantly higher than those of the existing signs improved by adding/changing pictorials. The highest mean comprehension score of safety signs for the construction workers was found in the existing signs improved by adding/changing pictorials and text. These results indicated that for construction workers, the comprehension of safety signs with pictorials and explanatory text was better than that of the existing signs.

Can we help persons with dementia find their way in a new environment?

The objective of this study was to conduct a randomized controlled trial to examine the effects of a way-finding intervention on residents' ability to find their way in a new environment. The effect of the intervention on the residents' spatial orientation and agitation were also examined. The study was conducted on four nursing home units in a geriatric center and the final sample consisted of 32 residents with Alzheimer's disease (17 in the treatment group and 15 in the control group). The intervention consisted of the use of a location map and a behavioral training technique, which was provided to residents over the course of a month. Repeated measures analysis of variance and McNemar tests were used to compare the groups in regard to changes in the outcomes over time. Results indicated that the residents' in the treatment group demonstrated an increased ability to find their way to the dining room one week after the intervention. The intervention effect was not sustained three months later.

Effect of movement speed on limb segment motions for reaching from a standing position

The performance of a standing reaching task that necessitates some forward bending requires: (1) the coordination of multiple joints (i.e., the trunk and limb segments) to reach the target, and (2) the preservation of postural stability. It has been proposed that the neural control of multijoint reaching tasks can be simplified by time scaling of joint motions while keeping joint excursions the same. To determine if time scaling of joint motions was used in this more complex reaching task, we had 20 healthy subjects (10 male and 10 female) reach for two targets located in a parasagittal plane while standing on a force platform. Subjects reached for the targets at a comfortable speed and a fast paced speed. Sagittal plane motions of the right shank, thigh, pelvis, trunk, humerus, and forearm were measured. At the fast paced movement speeds subjects had significantly larger excursions of the thigh, pelvis, humerus, and forearm compared to the comfortable speed. Thus, segment motions are not simply time scaled for standing multijoint reaches. We explored three possible reasons for not obeying time scaling: (1) to reduce scaling of peak kinetic energy, (2) to reduce scaling of peak horizontal ground reaction force, and (3) a convergence of movement strategies at faster speeds. While subjects modified their movement strategy in relationship to movement speed, these changes had no significant effect on the expected scaling of peak kinetic energy, or peak horizontal ground reaction forces. Given the intersubject differences in movement strategies used to perform these reaching tasks at the fast speeds, a convergence of movement strategies was ruled out. We propose that the increase in segment motions with speed may be a consequence of rules underlying motor output, the increases being greater for segments in which viscoelastic resistance to movement is more significant compared to inertial resistance.

Safeguarding patient privacy. Establish department compliance with new federal regulations on individually indentifiable health information

New patient privacy standards require managers to rethink daily unit policies and procedures. Here's what you need to know to comply with the impending federal mandates.

Using signs, artwork, and music to promote stair use in a public building

OBJECTIVES

This study assessed the impact on stair use of improving the attractiveness of a stairwell.

METHODS

Observations of stair usage were made in a university building during baseline, 2 interventions, and follow-up. The first intervention involved signs; the second intervention added artwork and music in the stairwell.

RESULTS

More participants used the stairs during the music and artwork intervention than at baseline or when signs alone were used.

CONCLUSIONS

Improving the aesthetic qualities of a stairwell can increase rates of stair usage in a public building. Designs for buildings should take accessibility and aesthetic issues into consideration.

Promoting stair use in a US-Mexico border community

OBJECTIVES

This study sought to determine whether a culturally relevant health message would promote stair use in a predominantly Hispanic community.

METHODS

Observations of stair, elevator, and escalator use were collected over a 6-month period at 4 sites throughout the city of El Paso, Tex. The efficacy of individual and family health promotion signs was tested.

RESULTS

Stair use increased in response to both individual and family promotion health messages, and use varied widely by intervention site.

CONCLUSIONS

These results underscore the importance of considering the physical characteristics of the environments targeted for health promotion campaigns.