Patrick Szary, Ph.D.
To develop and distribute a Transportation Skills Assessment Tool (TSAT) for individuals with autism spectrum disorders in New Jersey to understand the skills necessary to ride various paratransit and community transportation services. These services include fixed route, complimentary ADA paratransit, special transportation, community transportation, employment transportation and/or Medicaid transportation.
The TSAT will evaluate transportation services frequently used by individuals with disabilities in New Jersey for competitive and noncompetitive employment sites, education services, shopping, Medicaid/Medicare transportation, non-emergency medical appointments (including any therapies), social and recreational activities, etc.
While these services are available to individuals with disabilities, individuals on the autism spectrum often don’t use them as much as they could. The ability to access safe and appropriate transportation will aid in understanding and training individuals to access various types of transportation options. The development of the TSAT will allow for an increase in access to transportation, which can in turn lead access to employment, housing and community life opportunities thus increasing the quality of lie for individuals on the spectrum.
The Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation (CAIT) team will research, collect data for, and evaluate various paratransit and community transportation services throughout the New Jersey/New York/Philadelphia metro regions. The research will be conducted on site using the actual vehicles and services that are being utilized with the public. After reviewing and documenting all the necessary skills required to use each transportation option, a skills assessment model will be developed.
Once the initial TSAT is complete, the research team will analyze and compare the initial skills documented with at least one service provider different from the one used to develop the tool. For example, with the hand-to-hand transportation service, the team will review the skills needed by a different transportation organization to ensure consistency of the skills are required for the service.
After the analysis, the TSAT will be evaluated by a travel training organization. The goal in this phase will be to address any shortcomings regarding the clarity and description of skills needed for a type of transportation service. A member of the team from the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center at Rutgers who is an expert on the needs of adults with autism will review each of the tasks to ensure that that they follow current standards used by professionals in the field.
Once the review recommendations have been implemented, the research team will conduct a pilot test in several New Jersey counties after which the TSAT will be distributed to transition trainers and directors of adult programs in the state.
Patrick Szary, Ph.D., is the associate director of the Rutgers Center for Advanced Infrastructure and Transportation. He is a civil engineer who got his doctorate in civil/geotechnical engineering from Rutgers in 2009. With a background in transportation and infrastructure research, he collaborates regularly with federal and state government agencies, industry, and other academic partners to leverage both resources and knowledge to move research from the lab into real-world applications that solve real-world problems.
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