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Who makes attractions safe?

Nine women sit around table in hotel restaurant

There are many people involved in setting standards that make amusement rides and devices safe. The ASTM F24 standards are used in 19 countries, and counting. The committee has almost 900 members, and holds meetings three times annually. Meetings held in USA have almost 300 people participating in multiple concurrent sessions, literally poring over language used in standards to ensure that people following the standards will interpret the requirements as intended.

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Human factors and access to amusement rides

Human factors engineering looks at how the interaction of people and technology affects the performance of the whole system. The attractions industry creates a very interesting application because it doesn’t manufacture conventional products or other tangibles. An amusement ride is a system that produces fun. People are not consumers of the ride; they are a component of the system. The system is different with different people in it. Not only do people vary in their individual capabilities and limitations, but they also vary in their goals and definitions of fun.

Disabled people want to have fun too, and attraction operators in theme parks and carnivals want everyone to be able to participate to the fullest extent possible.

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Investigating the effect of experience and time on kinematics during one hour of sign language interpreting

Fischer, S., Johnson, R. Abdoli, M., Woodcock, K., 2014. Investigating the effect of experience and time on kinematics during one hour of sign language interpreting. IIE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors 2, 60–70.

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