Research on Inclusive Wayfinding Systems in Transportation Hubs for Visually Impaired Older Adults

As global demographics shift toward an increasingly aged society, the preservation of independent mobility and spatial navigation has emerged as a critical public health priority. This study investigates the spatial exploration behaviors of visually impaired older adults in complex airport terminals, utilizing real-world wayfinding tasks coupled with integrated eye-tracking technology. Through a comparative analysis between a visually impaired elderly cohort and a younger sighted control group, this research quantifies navigational effort via gaze angular velocity (AV), wayfinding duration, and gaze distribution heatmaps. Experimental results indicate that visually impaired older adults exhibit significantly higher gaze AV across all navigational sections, a phenomenon characterized here as a compensatory behavioral response to declining visuospatial function. However, this compensatory mechanism demonstrates a "saturation point" at structurally complex intersections, such as those with acute connection angles, where elderly participants fail to further scale their exploratory efforts. The analysis further reveals that dynamic traffic entities, specifically pedestrians, create an "attentional lock-in" effect that disproportionately suppresses peripheral awareness in older navigators. Correlating these behavioral markers with clinical indicators, including Mean Deviation (MD), Pattern Standard Deviation (PSD), and Useful Field of View (UFOV), this article establishes a logical framework for evidence-based inclusive design. Recommendations focus on geometric simplification of transit nodes, multisensory redundancy, and the integration of adaptive assistance technologies to mitigate the "environmental press" on the aging brain.