Mobility and Accessibility for Children and Adults (MACA)
In partnership with the Mobility and Accessibility for Children and Adults Inc. (MACA), Professor Sarah Pink and PhD candidate Iris Maher will conduct human centred research into understanding the transport needs for children with disabilities to assist in their support of safe transport. The project was funded by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).
“Children with disabilities often require case-by-case assessment and standard child restraints and regulations do not always meet their needs. Alarmingly, 74 per cent of children with autism escape their child restraint, impacting on their safety and others.’
Helen Lindner, Chief Executive, MACA
The research project will run from 2020 to 2022 and will investigate how children with disabilities and their families travel in vehicles using the current safety restraints available.
The project will use ethnographic methods to see how families travel and the kinds of complexities associated with travel in collaboration with MACA. The ethnographic will contribute to MACA’s wider agenda to ensure safe travel for children with disabilities.
Investigators
Monash: Sarah Pink, PhD candidate Iris Maher