Kathryn Woodcock

Recent and ongoing projects have included:

• developing aids for investigating and recording human error;
• studying safety inspection and the use of performance supports;
• analysing amusement rider behaviours and ride accident reports;
• applying human factors interface design principles to amusement rides;
• health and safety experiences of working students;
• education, work, and health profile of deaf and hard of hearing Canadians;
• and prevention of musculoskeletal injury for sign language interpretation.

About Dr. Woodcock

Dr. Kathryn Woodcock is an Associate Professor at Toronto's Ryerson University, teaching, researching, and consulting in the area of human factors engineering/ergonomics. Her research interests include studying and developing applications of Human Factors / Ergonomics to amusement, entertainment, and recreation as Director of the THRILL lab (www.ryerson.ca/thrill) which applies human factors engineering to performance, error, and investigation, and studies the effect of design on control operators, guests, and inspectors. She teaches in the bachelor’s degree program in Occupational Health and Safety as well as supervising graduate students in the Faculty of Engineering.

Before joining Ryerson, she managed a research and policy unit in the Prevention Division of the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board of Ontario. Through the 1980s, she was a hospital vice-president and active in the Ontario health care sector. Dr. Woodcock previously taught graduate and undergraduate courses in industrial engineering and ergonomics at Rochester Institute of Technology (New York) and the University of Waterloo, and is an adjunct scientist of the Institute for Work and Health.

Dr. Woodcock is a registered Professional Engineer and Canadian Certified Professional Ergonomist with degrees from University of Waterloo and University of Toronto, a member of national and international professional societies in ergonomics and engineering and has presented many papers in the field. In 2011, she was named a Fellow of the Association of Canadian Ergonomists. Dr. Woodcock is also active in the community, as a member of the Consumer Advisory Council and Amusement Devices Advisory Council of the Technical Standards and Safety Authority, and Deaf Women in Science and Engineering. She served the Ontario Minister of Community and Social Services to the Accessibility Standards Advisory Council, challenged to implement the Access to Ontarians with Disabilities Act (2005) from 2005 to 2009.

University of Toronto Press published her book on deafness in 2000. She was the first deaf president of The Canadian Hearing Society, and has been active on a variety of other boards and councils including the Ontario Council of Regents for Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology, Ontario Service Safety Alliance, the Ontario Hospital Association, the Board of Governors of Centennial College in Toronto, the National Captioning Institute's Board of Directors, the Executive Council of Association of Canadian Ergonomists (formerly HFAC), and the Association of Late-Deafened Adults. Dr. Woodcock has received awards for community service, advocacy, and voluntarism, including the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship and honours from professional societies and community organizations including the Citizenship Award from the Canadian Council of Professional Engineers and Association of Professional Engineers of Ontario, and the Outstanding Alumni Medal from the University of Waterloo Faculty of Engineering. She has also been recognized by the Association of Late-Deafened Adults, the Ontario Association of the Deaf, and the International Alumnae of Delta Epsilon (Gallaudet University).