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Assessment of Indoor Route-finding Technology for People with Visual Impairment.
Amy A Kalia1, Gordon E Legge, Rudrava Roy
1Department of Psychology, University of Minnesota Twin-Cities.
Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness
|August 27, 2011
Summary
Digital map navigation aids visually impaired users. Route instructions using steps, not time or feet, improved navigation performance for those with visual impairments.
Area of Science:
- Human-computer interaction
- Assistive technology
- Navigation systems
Background:
- Digital map software and synthetic speech offer potential for navigation assistance.
- Understanding user performance with these technologies is crucial for accessibility.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effectiveness of digital map navigation with synthetic speech for visually impaired and sighted individuals.
- To compare different distance metrics (steps, time, feet) for route instructions.
Main Methods:
- Participants (visually impaired or sighted with blindfolds) navigated an unfamiliar building using digital map software and synthetic speech.
- Route instructions were provided with varying distance information: number of steps, walking time, or number of feet.
Main Results:
- Both visually impaired and sighted participants successfully located rooms.
- Visually impaired users showed significantly better route-finding performance when distance was presented as the number of steps.
Conclusions:
- Navigation technology using synthetic speech can be effective for visually impaired individuals.
- Providing distance in number of steps is a superior method for route instructions for visually impaired users compared to walking time or feet.
