Pedestrian Accessibility Expertise Grounded in Standards, Research, and Nonvisual Navigation

A Specialized Perspective for Transportation Projects

Suzette May is a pedestrian accessibility specialist based in Waco, Texas. She works with municipalities, transportation agencies, design firms, researchers, and professional audiences on blind and low-vision access to transportation environments.

Her expertise combines accessibility standards, transportation research, orientation and mobility, human factors, and direct experience navigating streets and transit systems nonvisually. That combination allows her to explain not only what a requirement says, but why it is written that way and how people who navigate nonvisually interact with the finished environment.

Standards Knowledge Informed by Research and Use

Her academic background includes a bachelor’s degree in Disability Studies, magna cum laude and with honors, from Arizona State University, where her research focused on accessible pedestrian signals, along with graduate study in orientation and mobility at Western Michigan University.

Her professional and committee experience includes work with the Association for the Education and Rehabilitation of the Blind and Visually Impaired Environmental Access Committee, the Janet Barlow Initiative Committee, the American Council of the Blind Pedestrian Environmental Access and Transportation Committee, and the American Council of the Blind of Texas Transportation Committee.

From Advocacy Experience to Professional Consulting

Suzette May, LLC grew from years of accessibility research, standards work, committee service, field observation, and collaboration with transportation professionals. The firm now provides specialized consultation and education that helps project teams carry pedestrian accessibility requirements from standards and plans into construction and installation.

The goal is to bring the right knowledge into the project early enough that teams can resolve difficult questions constructively and deliver environments that work for people navigating nonvisually.