NASBLA News

Help American Whitewater Refine Safety Messaging for Signage at River Access Points

American Whitewater has been recognized as the experts for whitewater safety for over 60 years and is actively called upon to provide input on safety messaging for signage at river access points across the country. It is vital that the valuable information that this organization shares be supplied in a way that allows the message to come across clearly, ensures there is no visual confusion about the content, and that the communication serves a purpose and is noticed and accessible by river users.

With support from the United States Coast Guard, American Whitewater is building an open-source "toolbox” to supply anyone tasked with developing safety signs or graphic information with the content, imagery, and necessary guidelines to successfully implement a signage program and customize it for their site. American Whitewater believes that having consistent messaging, iconography and graphic elements at river recreation sites will improve communication, safety, and awareness for users and help protect the environment.

The intent of this survey is to obtain feedback about what type of information, graphics, and signage elements you believe are necessary or the most valuable to have at river access sites to provide safe and sustainable recreation for users.

American Whitewater is asking participants to complete the survey by November 20th through the following link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/aww-sign-graphics-survey

If you are a federal employee, this link will not work while logged into VPN. So, they have provided an alternative collection instrument through MS Forms that is an option for federal employees: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=urWTBhhLe02TQfMvQApUlEaKKEo9CVJOqcaAseyrQ7hURUdXTVczSEpXR1VKVkdNSTlBTjJJMjNJMS4u

American Whitewater is distributing the survey on a number of listservs and encourages you to share with your colleagues. If after taking the survey you have capacity and interest in becoming more involved in the project, or have examples to share, please do not hesitate to contact Thomas O’Keefe (okeefe@americanwhitewater.org).