Local Health Departments' Capacity for Workplace Health Promotion Programs to Prevent Chronic Disease: Comparison of Rural, Micropolitan, and Urban Contexts.

OBJECTIVE: To examine local health department (LHD) contexts, capacity for, and interest in partnering with employers on workplace health promotion programs (WHPPs) for chronic disease prevention. DESIGN: Qualitative interviews with LHD directors. SETTING: LHDs from 21 counties in 10 states. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty-one LHD directors. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURESS: Experiences and perceptions of existing partnerships, decision making, funding, data needs, and organizational capacity for WHPP partnerships with employers. RESULTS: We identified 3 themes: (1) LHDs see the value of partnering with employers but lack the capacity to do so effectively; (2) while LHDs base priorities on community need, funding ultimately drives decision making; and (3) rural, micropolitan, and urban LHDs differ in their readiness and capacity to work with employers. CONCLUSIONS: Understanding LHDs' partnership capacity and context is essential to the successful implementation of WHPP partnerships with employers. Expanding these partnerships may require additional financial investments, particularly among rural LHDs.

PERCEPT-II: smartphone based indoor navigation system for the blind.

In this paper we introduce PERCEPT-II, a low cost and user friendly indoor navigation system for blind and visually impaired users. Using an Android Smartphone that runs PERCEPT-II application with accessibility features, the blind user obtains navigation instructions to the chosen destination when touching specific landmarks tagged with Near Field Communication tags. The system was deployed and tested in a large building at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Quantitative and qualitative evaluation of PERCEPT indoor navigation system for visually impaired users.

In this paper we introduce qualitative and quantitative evaluation of PERCEPT system, an indoor navigation system for the blind and visually impaired. PERCEPT system trials with 24 blind and visually impaired users in a multi-story building show PERCEPT system effectiveness in providing appropriate navigation instructions to these users. The uniqueness of our system is that it is affordable and that its design follows Orientation and Mobility principles. These results encourage us to generalize the solution to large indoor spaces and test it with significantly larger visually impaired population in diverse settings. We hope that PERCEPT will become a standard deployed in all indoor public spaces.

PERCEPT Indoor Navigation System for the Blind and Visually Impaired: Architecture and Experimentation.

We introduce PERCEPT system, an indoor navigation system for the blind and visually impaired. PERCEPT will improve the quality of life and health of the visually impaired community by enabling independent living. Using PERCEPT, blind users will have independent access to public health facilities such as clinics, hospitals, and wellness centers. Access to healthcare facilities is crucial for this population due to the multiple health conditions that they face such as diabetes and its complications. PERCEPT system trials with 24 blind and visually impaired users in a multistory building show PERCEPT system effectiveness in providing appropriate navigation instructions to these users. The uniqueness of our system is that it is affordable and that its design follows orientation and mobility principles. We hope that PERCEPT will become a standard deployed in all indoor public spaces, especially in healthcare and wellness facilities.