The Janet Morgan Barlow Environmental Access Service Award

The Janet Morgan Barlow Environmental Access Service Award was established in 2021 to recognize professionals who demonstrate distinguished service in orientation and mobility through a long-term commitment to environmental access. The award was named for Janet Barlow because of her lifelong commitment and dedication to the field, her steadfast, practical, and strategic methods to address research needs, her advocacy for greater accessibility to the built environment, and her education of orientation and mobility specialists and transportation professionals such as traffic engineers and urban planners on issues relevant to both professional areas.

History
The Janet Barlow Environmental Access Service Award was established in 2021 to recognize professionals who demonstrate distinguished service in orientation and mobility through a long-term commitment to environmental access. The award was named for Janet Barlow because of her lifelong commitment and dedication to the field, her steadfast, practical, and strategic methods to address research needs, advocacy for greater accessibility to the built environment, and education of orientation and mobility specialists and transportation professionals such as traffic engineers and urban planners on issues relevant to both professional areas.

Janet worked as an orientation and mobility specialist, manager, and advocate in Georgia at the Atlanta Area Services for the Blind, now known as the Center for the Visually Impaired. Her practical experience prepared her well for her next career, researching techniques to make the built environment more accessible to pedestrians with vision loss. At the time of her passing in August 2021, Janet was President of Accessible Design for the Blind (ADB), a small research organization started by Dr. Beezy Bentzen. Under Janet’s leadership, ADB became well-recognized for human factors research related to environmental access. Major topics that Janet investigated include accessible pedestrian signals, roundabouts, and tactile walking surface indicators such as detectable warnings and guidance surfaces. In 2017, together with Diane Fazzi, COMS, Ph.D. she wrote Orientation and Mobility Techniques: A Guide for the Practitioner, a manual for the teaching of O&M, now used as a textbook in university programs preparing O&M specialists. Janet was also the original author of two chapters in Foundations of Orientation and Mobility, 3rd ed., the authoritative textbook on the theory, research, and practice of O&M, “Environmental Accessibility for Students with Vision Loss”, and “Teaching Travel at Complex Intersections.” She authored many papers and was a sought-after speaker at conferences and workshops.
The first Janet Barlow Environmental Access Service Award was awarded to her posthumously and presented to her family at the 2022 AER International Conference in St Louis, Missouri. Janet Barlow was posthumously chosen as the first recipient of this award because of her lifelong dedication to the field of orientation and mobility and active involvement with numerous professional activities and committees while maintaining a special focus on building mutual understanding between orientation and mobility specialists, traffic engineers, and urban planners.

The establishment of this award is a fitting tribute to Janet Barlow and to all the countless other orientation and mobility specialists who forego higher-paying careers in order to continue doing what they know and love best, including creating mutual understanding and respect between orientation and mobility specialists, urban planners, and traffic engineers. The award will be given only when a worthy recipient is determined.

Past Recipients of the Janet Barlow Environmental Access Service Award:
2022 Janet Barlow, posthumously
2024 Billie Louise Bentzen