Safety and situational awareness

Traveling anywhere requires awareness of your surroundings. Sometimes people don’t notice dangerous conditions, like potholes or other hazards. Moving vehicles don’t always follow the traffic rules. Other people can sometimes cause harm. Travel training teaches people how to stay safe while traveling.

A large, deep rectangular pothole sits directly adjacent to a painted white pedestrian crosswalk, marked only by an orange traffic cone and a plastic trash can.

Date: c. 1990s

Image Description: A color photograph looking across a city intersection showing a hazardous, deep rectangular excavation or pothole cut into the asphalt right against the white stripes of a pedestrian crosswalk and a circular metal manhole cover. An orange-and-white traffic cone and a dark plastic trash barrel with a white liner sit next to the hole as makeshift warning markers, while pedestrians cross the street in the background.

Source: Peggy Groce Collection

A travel trainer walks just behind a young man with Down syndrome as the student steps off a sidewalk curb next to a large puddle at a street crosswalk.

Date: c. 1990s

Image Description: A black-and-white photograph at a city intersection showing a young man with Down syndrome in a plaid shirt and dark pants stepping carefully from the curb into the crosswalk beside a large puddle of standing water. A travel trainer with a beard, white button-down shirt, and jeans walks closely behind him on the sidewalk curb, watching attentively beneath a “WALK” pedestrian signal with parked cars and traffic in the background.

Source: Peggy Groce Collection

Two people walk side by side along an asphalt roadway next to a graffiti-covered corrugated metal fence, with one person resting a guiding arm on the other's shoulder.

Date: c. 1980

Image Description: A color photograph viewed from behind showing a person in a white hoodie and blue jeans walking alongside a young Black man in an orange plaid shirt, baggy jeans, and a dark green backpack along a paved urban street or industrial alleyway. The person on the left extends their right arm across the young man’s shoulders as he looks to the right toward a corner where a graffiti-covered corrugated metal fence topped with barbed wire meets overgrown trees.

Source: Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association (EPVA) Collection

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