Stairway safety for older adults

The HARPER Laboratory at the University of Alabama in Huntsville studies how people see and negotiate stairs, and how changes to stairway design reduce falls. We combine motion capture, instrumented stairs, eye tracking, and augmented reality to test which design changes actually work, and we carry the findings into building codes and standards.

Take part in a study  ·  Publications and funding  ·  Research team

Recent highlights

Chaired the 2026 Slips, Trips, and Falls International Conference. Held at UAH in June 2026 and endorsed by the International Ergonomics Association, bringing researchers and industry professionals from around the world to Huntsville. Presented Advancing Stairway Safety Through Applied Ergonomics with Dr. Howard Chen and student Sai Panuganti. The conference moves to London in 2027.

National Institute on Aging award, 2025 to 2027. Extramural Clinical Research Loan Repayment Program, L30AG096719, for Evaluating stairway designs for individuals with vision impairment.

Current projects

Foot clearance and perceptions of stair contrast marking frequency. Currently enrolling participants.

Visual contrast via augmented reality for stair navigation. In post-processing and manuscript development.

Biomechanical considerations of older adult fallers in long-term care homes. In presentation preparation.

Department of Kinesiology undergraduate alumni survey. Ongoing.

In development

Look Before You Leap. An outdoor observational stairway assessment.

For students

UAH students interested in research assistantships, RCEU projects or thesis work should email Dr. Harper at sara.harper@uah.edu. Past student projects are listed on the Mentoring page.

Facilities

The lab is built around a purpose-made research stairway, which lets us change one variable at a time under controlled lighting and measure what that does to how people move.

Stairway and gait measurement. Custom stairs built by the Stairbuilders and Manufacturers Association, Bertec instrumented stairs and force platforms, Vicon optical motion capture with eight Vero cameras and a FLIR Blackfly video camera, and SafeGait ACTIVE dynamic fall protection.

Vision and attention. Pupil Labs Neon mobile eye tracking, Meta Quest 3 for virtual and augmented reality, custom digital multiplex lighting control, and an Extech LT300 light meter.

Supporting equipment. Delsys Centro electromyography in collaboration with the College of Engineering, 3D printing, and GoPro video.

The Department of Kinesiology also houses a Hologic Horizon DXA scanner, a Cosmed BodPod, a HUMAC Norm isokinetic dynamometer, Parvomedics metabolic carts, and a HydroWorx underwater treadmill.

Researchers and industry partners interested in using the facility or collaborating are welcome to get in touch.

In the news

Research Spotlight on Dr. Sara Harper. Occupational Ergonomics Technical Group, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, September 2026.

UAH brings worldwide leaders in safety research to Huntsville. UAH News, July 2026.

Q and A: UAH’s Dr. Sara Harper talks about tips for increasing mobility in the aging population. Living 50 Plus Huntsville, August 2025.

Take the ‘Death Stairs’ if You Dare. The New York Times, November 2024.