ODU | The RFTA Validator

Packet Diagnostics

Use the six hard stops to diagnose the submission before it reaches Virginia Housing or a partner agency. Each instruction is paired with Heritage Spanish and bilingual audio to reduce the bandwidth tax.

Submission Date Fecha de envío

Year Built Año de construcción

Select a submission date to activate the 15-day review tracker.

Lead-Based Paint rule: Year Built not yet entered.

Day 0 of 15

Review window inactive

6 hard stops remain incomplete.

HeatingCalefacción

CookingCocina

WaterAgua

Utility Information Gap: complete all utility ownership selections before validating the packet.

About & Info

The RFTA Validator is the technical output of The Living Lab, a Fall 2025 ethnographic research project at Old Dominion University grounded in nearly 30 years of lived experience navigating federal housing systems.

Research Profile

Developed by Joana Camp, ODU Senior and Lead Technical Researcher.
Designed as an applied Human Performance Technology (HPT) intervention for federal housing navigation.

Performance Problem Addressed

This tool is designed to mitigate the Bandwidth Tax and reduce Administrative Friction during the RFTA submission process.
Its diagnostic structure helps prevent incomplete packets, avoidable review delays, and repeated documentation failure points.

Instructional Design Strategy

The validator applies Mayer’s Contiguity Principles, including Spatial Contiguity and Temporal Contiguity, to present related information together and at the moment it is needed.
This design approach is intended to eliminate the Signature Gap and reduce the documented 30% resource drain caused by incomplete or mistimed submissions.

Linguistic Equity

The tool uses bilingual Hard Stops to support Linguistic Equity and improve comprehension across English and Heritage Spanish contexts.
Audio-supported bilingual prompts are included to strengthen access, accuracy, and navigation confidence.

Scaling Note

This project was officially submitted to the OpenAI Codex Creator Challenge via Handshake as part of a broader effort to scale The Living Lab into a national resource.