DINING EXPERIENCES AND THE IMPACT OF
ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION FOR PEOPLE
WITH DISABILITIES: A PILOT STUDY
Dennis B. Tomashek, Rachael Baumann, Roger O.
Smith, PhD
R2D2 Center, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
www.r2d2.uwm.edu
ARB AccessPlace Web
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Designed for consumers
Set up profile
Search for buildings
Read reviews and comments
Leave Reviews and comments
Personalized Accessibility Information
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
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ARB AccessPlace Web
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
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
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Designed for consumers
Set up profile
Search for buildings
Read reviews and comments
Leave Reviews and comments
Personalized Accessibility Information
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
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Profile Page: Personalized Profiles
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
Search Page: Search by Keyword, sort
by distance or Accessibility
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
Results Page
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
Results Page Overall Accessibility
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
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Results Page Detailed Ratings
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
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Demonstration from
profile to results
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
Dining Experience Study
 Purpose: To evaluate the usefulness of accessibility
information for people with disabilities in deciding where
to dine.
 Design: 2 groups (PWDs and Non-PWDs) and 2
conditions (ARB AccessPlace Information and Yelp®)
 Hypothesis: PWDs who received the Personalized
Accessibility Information from the ARB website would
choose more new restaurants to dine at than PWDs who
received generic restaurant reviews.
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
Dining Experience Study
 Procedure
 Data populated for 20 restaurants
 4 trained evaluators completed a 131 evaluation
 2 disability experts composed consumer reviews from the
perspective of hearing, mobility, and vision impairments
 Pre survey to determine dining out habits and preferences
(N=25)
 Presented with list of 20 restaurants to determine 5 at which
they had not previously dined and 5 at which they had dined
 Participants presented with information (ARB
or Yelp)
 Completed restaurant selection survey
(N=16, 8 PWDs)
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
Quantitative Results
 NO significant difference between
PWDs who used ARB (M=2.56,
SD=.73)and those who used Yelp
(M=1.50, SD=1.29) in number of new
restaurants selected.
 May be due to small numbers within
each group (4 PWDs).
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
Qualitative Results
 All participants, including those without
disabilities, listed “Cost/value”,
“Location/Proximity”, “Quality”, and
“Taste” as most valued features of
restaurants.
 For PWDs, all listed “accessibility” as an
important feature, and 5 listed “where
others go” (none of the non-PWDs listed
this as an important feature).
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
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Comments from Participants with
Disabilities
Several participants who used ARB AccessPlace provided
informative insight into how PWD might find the app useful
“The main feature of a new restaurant I am considering is if
the entrance is level or not and where I will park my car.
…Only then do I think of food”
“…how I would be able to order despite my disability and
explained how the places catered to those disabilities”
A third PWD commented that they appreciated the
accessibility information, but would like other restaurant info
(e.g., menu, cost) to be included.
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
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Acknowledgement
 UD-IT (AR-B) acknowledgment:
 The Access Ratings for Buildings Project is
supported in part by the Department of
Education, National Institute on Disability and
Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR), grant number
H133G100211. The opinions contained in this
(insert type of publication; e.g. journal article,
book, report, film, etc) do not necessarily
represent the policy of the Department of
Education, and you should not assume
endorsement by the Federal Government.
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
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Questions?
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
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R2D2 Center Contact Information
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Web: www.r2d2.uwm.edu
Email: r2d2@uwm.edu
Voice: (414) 229-6803
TTY: (414) 229-5628
© 2012 Rehabilitation Research Design & Disability (R2D2) Center, UW-Milwaukee, www.r2d2.uwm.edu
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