A University Indoors Audio-Tactile Mobility Aid for Individuals with Blindness

This article presents the development of an Audio-Tactile aid in order to facilitate and enhance the spatial knowledge as well as the independent and safe movement of individuals with blindness in the University of Macedonia indoors. Moreover the developed aid provides information that helps blind individuals to obtain a cognitive image of the university indoors, plan routes they wish to track and easily identify specific locations and services. The implementation procedure of the Audio-Tactile navigation system included the following steps: 1) development of digital maps that include specific spatial information for people with blindness, 2) production of tactile maps 3) research on the readability of the tactile maps by blind individuals and development of revised tactile maps, 4) development of Audio-Tactile maps and their connection with touchpad devices, and 5) a study to derive the most appropriate locations where 10 touchpads will be installed in the university indoors.

[1]  M. A. Espinosa,et al.  Using Tactile Maps to Improve the Practical Spatial Knowledge of Adults who are Blind , 1998 .

[2]  Konstantinos Papadopoulos,et al.  The impact of vision in spatial coding. , 2011, Research in developmental disabilities.

[3]  Konstantinos Papadopoulos,et al.  The Impact of Residual Vision in Spatial Skills of Individuals With Visual Impairments , 2011 .

[4]  Anke M. Brock,et al.  Design and User Satisfaction of Interactive Maps for Visually Impaired People , 2012, ICCHP.

[5]  Ferdinando Fornara,et al.  Wayfinding tasks in visually impaired people: the role of tactile maps , 2006, Cognitive Processing.

[6]  R. Welsh.  Foundations of Orientation and Mobility , 1979 .

[7]  A LARGE SCALE CITY ATLAS FOR THE BLIND , 2012 .

[8]  Gunnar Jansson,et al.  The reading of virtual maps without vision , 2007 .

[9]  Konstantinos Papadopoulos.  Automatic Transcription of Tactile Maps. Practice Report. , 2005 .

[10]  Wolfgang L. Zagler,et al.  Computers Helping People with Special Needs, 12th International Conference, ICCHP 2010, Vienna, Austria, July 14-16, 2010, Proceedings, Part II , 2010, ICCHP.

[11]  R. Dan Jacobson.  Navigating maps with little or no sight: An audio-tactile approach , 1998 .

[12]  Gunnar Jansson,et al.  A touch tablet enhanced with synthetic speech as a display for visually impaired people's reading of virtual maps. , 1997 .

[13]  Rainer Michel,et al.  The Target-Route Map: Evaluating Its Usability for Visually Impaired Persons , 2002 .

[14]  Konstantinos Papadopoulos,et al.  Mental Rotation Ability of Individuals with Visual Impairments , 2010 .

[15]  M. Blades,et al.  Can Visually Impaired Children Use Tactile Maps to Estimate Directions? , 1994 .

[16]  Konstantinos Papadopoulos,et al.  Are there relationships among different spatial skills of individuals with blindness? , 2012, Research in developmental disabilities.

[17]  G. Révész,et al.  Psychology and art of the blind , 1950 .

[18]  Amy K. Lobben,et al.  The Design of Tactile Thematic Symbols , 2011 .

[19]  Konstantinos Papadopoulos,et al.  Tactile maps provide location-based services for individuals with visual impairments , 2009, J. Locat. Based Serv..

[20]  Archie W. N. Roy,et al.  The representation and attainment of students with a visual impairment in higher education , 2002 .

[21]  M. Priestley.  Disability and the life course : global perspectives , 2001 .

[22]  Masakazu Suzuki,et al.  Braille-Embedded Tactile Graphics Editor with Infty System , 2008, ICCHP.