Jeffrey L. Crabtree

Community Mobility and Participation in Society Lab (COMPASS)

Transportation is an essential requirement for independent community living and participation in society. While medical rehabilitation, rehabilitation engineering, and research have helped to reduce the effects of chronic disease and disabling conditions, and despite the positive public transportation accommodations provided by the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, those with chronic disabling conditions face mobility barriers that result in social isolation, poor nutrition, poor quality of life, reduced education opportunities, reduced employment opportunities, and other challenges. The Community Mobility and Participation in Society Lab (COMPASS) provides researchers the opportunity to understand how to reduce barriers to public transportation usage by people with disabling conditions and share their findings with service providers.

The COMPASS Lab uses the gains made in medical rehabilitation and research to further enable access to public transportation for those who are transportation disadvantaged so that they may “live, learn, and earn”(1).

Professor Crabtree’s work to improve the lives of persons with disabling conditions is another example of how IUPUI’s faculty members are TRANSLATING their RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE.

(1) Young, J. M., Lehrer-Stein, J.,Young-Holmes, P. & Staff of the National Council on Disability. (2012). National Disability Policy: A Progress Report. Washington, DC: National Council on Disability.