Pedestrian navigation and public transit training interventions for youth with disabilities: a systematic review

Abstract

Purpose: Being able to travel independently, whether as a pedestrian or by taking public transportation, is a critical element to maintaining quality of life and participation in the community. The objective of this systematic review is to understand the best practices and effective components of pedestrian and public transit training interventions for youth with disabilities.

Method: Systematic searches of seven international databases identified 29 studies meeting our inclusion criteria. We analyzed these studies based on participant characteristics, methods, results, and quality of evidence.

Results: Among the 29 studies, 857 participants (aged 5–39, mean 18.3 years) were represented across 10 countries. Although the intervention outcomes varied across the studies, 24 of them reported an improvement in at least one of the following: pedestrian and general navigation skills, pedestrian safety, landmark recognition, route knowledge, and public transportation skills.

Conclusions: Our findings highlight that pedestrian and public transit interventions have the potential to improve the participation and quality of life of children and youth with disabilities. More rigorous, theoretically informed interventions, using standardized measures are needed to enhance pedestrian and transit training skills among youth with disabilities.

Implications for rehabilitation

• Travel training interventions have the potential to effectively support youth with disabilities in learning pedestrian and public transportation navigation skills.

• Clinicians and educators should encourage youth with disabilities to participate in travel training programs enhance their independence skills and participation in the community.

• Clinicians, educators, and program managers can help to build relevant content for travel training programs and connect youth to programs.

Keywords:

• Adolescent
• disability
• transportation
• participation
• life skills

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the staff, students, and volunteers in the TRAIL lab who contributed to this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The first author holds a career award from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation.