1. TIME AND COST EFFECTIVENESS OF WORKPLACE ASSESSMENT FOR
INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES
Shinyoung Lim, PhD1, Jongbae Kim, PhD1, David M. Brienza, PhD2, Jon Sanford,
PhD3
National Rehabilitation Center Research Institute, Seoul, Korea1
University of Pittsburgh2
Georgia Institute of Technology3
ABSTRACT
A novel method for providing an alternative
and innovative workplace assessment for
individuals with disabilities and/or aging
workers as a competitive method to the
traditional on-site assessment is introduced.
The major benefit of the novel method is to
allow workplace assessments at ‘Points of
Interest’ in all areas of assessment where, for
instance, door width, door handle height, and
width of corridor in the workplace assessment
template.
KEY WORDS
Aging and disability, employment,
workplace accommodation, virtual reality, on-
site assessment, and workplace remote
assessment.
INTRODUCTION
Addressing the needs of workers with
disabilities and aging workers experiencing
changes in function is integral to the process of
rehabilitation service delivery. Professionals in
the area of rehabilitation and workplace
accommodations often provide detailed
assessments to enable employees with
disabilities or those experiencing functional
changes related to aging to more successfully
perform their job duties. It is especially
important for the aged or disabled workers to
enable them to keep participating in the
workforce while maintaining safety and
productivity. Traditionally, assessments have
been performed on-site at the workplace, which
may limit workers in specific geographic areas,
such as rural locations, from obtaining an
assessment due to lack of service providers,
time and cost required for travel, etc.
One of the time and cost saving methods
for remote assessment of home and/or
workplace accessibility is to use virtual reality
technology [1, 2, 3, 4]. We introduce a novel
method for providing an alternative and
innovative workplace assessment for individuals
with disabilities and/or aging workers as a
competitive method to the traditional on-site
assessment [5, 6]. The method focuses on
using these technologies to allow workplace
assessments to be conducted remotely by
workplace accommodation specialists. The
major benefit of the remote assessment is to
allow workplace assessments in all Internet
service areas to save long distance travel time
and expense as compared to the traditional on-
site method. Our preliminary investigation of
time and cost effectiveness in home remote
accessibility assessment reveals that the
remote assessment using virtual reality proved
time and cost effectiveness when compared to
the on-site assessment [7]. The protocol design
objectives, method, results and discussion of
the updated workplace remote assessment
protocol are discussed in this paper.
PROTOCOL DESIGN OBJECTIVES
3D virtual reality and telecommunication
technologies which have previously been used
to successfully conduct home assessments have
the potential to enable practitioners to cover a
wider geographic area in order to provide
assessments in a timely, efficient, and cost-
effective manner [5, 6]. Currently, the
Workplace Rehabilitation Engineering Research
Center (Work RERC) at GA Tech and
Telerehabilitation RERC (RERC-TR) at the
University of Pittsburgh are collaborating in the

2. development of a workplace remote
assessment to allow employees in a wider
geographic area access to workplace
assessments in a timely, efficient, and cost-
effective manner. The Workplace Remote
Assessment Protocol (WRAP) is being
developed based on a previous analysis of a
number of assessment tools which resulted in a
conceptual framework to guide the process.
The WRAP system adopted a concept of ‘Points
of Interest’ that allows engineers who use a 3D
modeling tool, i.e., Photomodeler [8], to create
3D models of the points of interest from photo
images that will fit to the list of measurable
items in the workplace assessment table.
METHOD
The workplace assessment template has
been delivered by the RERC on Workplace
Accommodation at the Georgia Institute of
Technology in 2009. There are 187 assessment
items in total. We found that 116 are fully
measurable and 12 items were found to be
partially measurable by 3D modeling.
Therefore, 68.4% of all assessment items are
assessable by the 3D modeling software tool.
We re-designed the current WRAP method by
adopting the design objectives of ‘Points of
Interest’ those are 128 items among the 187
assessment items in the workplace assessment
template to acquire time and cost effectiveness.
With the definition of entities of the WRAP
system - ‘remote assessment group’, which
consists of rehabilitation specialists and
architects, ‘3D constructor’, ‘photographer’,
‘remote web portal system’, and ‘subject
(workplace)’-, we updated the current WRAP by
dividing one WRAP session into two modules:
initialization and WRAP process. The
initialization is identical for both conventional-
in-person (CIP) and WRAP as this time module
is for preparing the workplace assessment. The
estimated WRAP time is designed as four
independent time modules: WRAP setup, Static
WRAP, On-demand WRAP, and WRAP
finalization.
The WRAP setup time module is mainly for
the photographer’s time of setting up devices
for remote workplace assessment, i.e., digital
camera and networked computer, and its
Internet connection at the subject’s workplace.
The Static WRAP time module focuses on taking
and uploading photos at the subject’s
workplace, subsequent 3D modeling and
assessment in compliance with the concept of
Points of Interest. The On-demand WRAP time
module focuses on on-demand workplace
assessment driven by interaction between the
assessment group and the photographer in
case of additional photos are required for 3D
modeling and subsequent measurable
assessment of the workplace. The WRAP
Finalization time module is the last time module
of the WRAP method that contains full
workplace remote assessment. The
assessment group will finalize assessment
items including measurable and non-
measurable workplace assessments before the
photographer leaves the subject’s workplace.
RESULTS
The total time for the CIP method of
assessing the workplace at the selected area of
the Bakery Square laboratory at the University
of Pittsburgh was 3 hours and 54 minutes (234
minutes). That time excludes long distance
traveling time, local transportation time, and
other extra time for documentation and short
term meetings. The time for the modified
WRAP method of assessing the workplace at
the same selected area of the Bakery Square
laboratory was 14 hours and 54 minutes (894
minutes). That time includes 3D modeling time
(8 hours and 45 minutes (525 minutes)), and
matching and recording time of assessment
data by sections in the assessment table. This
outcome reveals that the updated WRAP
method reduced the time of 3D modeling when
we compare it to the outcome from last year
which was approximately four weeks’ worth of
office hours (160 hours) for approximately
same space at the South Side laboratory of the
University of Pittsburgh.
DISCUSSION
Both methods excluded initialization time
for the workplace assessment which includes
recruiting a subject workplace, adjusting the
assessment schedule, creating a subject’s
account in the remote web portal system, and
schedule notification to the remote assessment
group and the 3D modeler. In a real world

3. environment, the CIP method requires at least
one long distance round trip between the
subject workplace and the office of the
assessment professional as well as local
transportation. It usually takes two full days
(16 office hours) for these activities (one round
trip and local transportation). The training time
and skill required for the ‘Points of Interest’
method of 3D modeling is far shorter compared
to those to 3D modeling of whole area of the
selected module.
CONCLUSION
We found that the modification of the WRAP
method by initiating the idea of ‘Points of
Interest’ revealed a noticeable time and cost
saving in assessment and also brought time
and cost effectiveness of learning the software
tool, Photomodeler. It also affects the
availability and accessibility of the WRAP
method from the non-professional person’s
perspective. When we selected the space in
the Bakery Square laboratory for the workplace
assessment, we assumed that the space would
not be changed due to the people’s moving into
the Bakery Square laboratory. As we perform
the WRAP and CIP methods in the future, we
will need to collect assessment data from a
number of recruited subjects who are non-
professionals with respect to photography, 3D
modeling, and information technology. We also
need to select space at the Bakery Square
laboratory and the Georgia Tech workplace to
design and perform the WRAP and CIP methods.
There will be a quick user’s reference of
Photomodeler created for people who will use
this tool for the first time. For the further study,
we need to review the photo taking rules to
specify an optimum number of photos to
increase the usability ratio in 3D modeling.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work was supported by the Technology
Innovation Program(100036459, Development of
center to support QoLT industry and infrastructures)
funded by the MKE/KEIT, Korea.
REFERENCES
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[6] Kim, J. and D.M. Brienza, “The virtual reality
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[7] Shinyoung Lim, Jongbae Kim, Uzoh Ikpeama, Erik
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[8] Photomodeler, http://www.photomodeler.com
Author contact information
Shinyoung Lim, PhD.
National Rehabilitation Center Research Institute
111 Gaorigil, Gangbuk-gu, Seoul, Korea, 142-884,
Office Phone (82-2) 901-1978
EMAIL : eastgate@korea.kr