Enhanced Accessibility for People with Disabilities Living in Urban Areas

[Excerpt] People with disabilities constitute a significant proportion of the poor in developing countries. If internationally agreed targets on reducing poverty are to be reached, it is critical that specific measures be taken to reduce the societal discrimination and isolation that people with disabilities continue to face. Transport is an important enabler of strategies to fight poverty through enhancing access to education, employment, and social services. This project aims to further the understanding of the mobility and access issues experienced by people with disabilities in developing countries, and to identify specific steps that can be taken to start addressing problems. A major objective of the project is to compile a compendium of guidelines that can be used by government authorities, advocacy groups, and donor/loan agencies to improve the access of people with disabilities to transport and other services in urban areas

Inventory of ATT system requirements for elderly and disabled drivers and travellers

This Inventory of ATT System Requirements for Elderly and Disabled Drivers and Travellers is the product of the TELSCAN project’s Workpackage 3: Identification and Updating of User Requirements of Elderly and Disabled Travellers. It describes the methods and tools used to identify the needs of elderly and disabled (E&D) travellers. The result of this investigation is a summary of the requirements of elderly and disabled travellers using different modes of transport, including private cars, buses/trams, metros/trains, ships and airplanes. It provides a generic user requirements specification which can guide the design of all transport telematics systems. However, it is important to stress that projects should also capture a more detailed definition of user requirements for their specific application area or system

Meeting the needs of older peoplewith visual impairment: social care orsocial exclusion?

This paper is based on the research study ?Housing and supportneeds of older people with visual impairment ? experiences andchallenges? (Hanson et al, 2002).1The full findings of this study are reported in another occasionalpaper produced by Thomas Pocklington Trust.2 It is, however, usefulto state that this study found evidence that sight loss in later life hassignificant emotional consequences, often unacknowledged byprofessionals. It also showed how older people with visionimpairment often have their own coping strategies, but are less ablethan sighted peers to carry out certain daily tasks.The study suggested that professionals should offer sensitive andtimely support, in a more collaborative manner, and that serviceshave to be monitored and evaluated to avoid wide-ranging needsremaining unmet. In respect of the home environment, researchindicated that adequate and accessible domestic space in which todo housework safely, low vision equipment and the provision ofovernight accommodation for guests and carers was required.Most participants in the study wished to stay in their homes andneighbourhoods. When asked about possible alternative options,participants emphasised the importance of location and sufficientspace. If they were considering supported housing, they requiredfull information about how it addressed their particular needs.This paper focuses on whether older people with visual impairmentare vulnerable to social exclusion if their social care needs are unmet. In particular, this paper argues that:? Greater professional collaboration is required to improve eyeclinic and community support services.? Relevant staff should aim to provide timely and holisticassessments of need.? Older people with vision impairment have significant needs asregards home care support, access to information, psychologicalstress and social isolation.? Initiatives such as peer support groups and resource centres offeropportunities to tackle social exclusion arising from unmetneeds. This paper is based on the research study ?Housing and supportneeds of older people with visual impairment ? experiences andchallenges? (Hanson et al, 2002).1The full findings of this study are reported in another occasionalpaper produced by Thomas Pocklington Trust.2 It is, however, usefulto state that this study found evidence that sight loss in later life hassignificant emotional consequences, often unacknowledged byprofessionals. It also showed how older people with visionimpairment often have their own coping strategies, but are less ablethan sighted peers to carry out certain daily tasks.The study suggested that professionals should offer sensitive andtimely support, in a more collaborative manner, and that serviceshave to be monitored and evaluated to avoid wide-ranging needsremaining unmet. In respect of the home environment, researchindicated that adequate and accessible domestic space in which todo housework safely, low vision equipment and the provision ofovernight accommodation for guests and carers was required.Most participants in the study wished to stay in their homes andneighbourhoods. When asked about possible alternative options,participants emphasised the importance of location and sufficientspace. If they were considering supported housing, they requiredfull information about how it addressed their particular needs.This paper focuses on whether older people with visual impairmentare vulnerable to social exclusion if their social care needs are unmet. In particular, this paper argues that:? Greater professional collaboration is required to improve eyeclinic and community support services.? Relevant staff should aim to provide timely and holisticassessments of need.? Older people with vision impairment have significant needs asregards home care support, access to information, psychologicalstress and social isolation.? Initiatives such as peer support groups and resource centres offeropportunities to tackle social exclusion arising from unmetneeds

Possibilities of Applying ICT to Improve Safe Movement of Blind and Visually Impaired Persons

Today’s level of the development of information and communication technologies enables the implementation of assistive technologies that can contribute to improved mobility of the persons with impaired vision (users that move along the traffic network). The user in this research has the role of a pedestrian moving along the traffic network, using information and communication technology (ICT) solutions and services for the purpose of information about the surrounding and navigation. In order to achieve greater information and safe movement of the user in the environment, one has to identify and define the relevant parameters necessary to define the user’s requirements, as the basic precondition for the design of new information and communication services. The analysis of the most used application solutions for mobile terminal devices showed the failure in providing precise information to the user, designing of functionality, structure of information and education of the users about the new solutions and services. The downsides of the current applications have served as the basis in defining the recommendations for the development of future applications, with the aim of increasing the user safety. Proper structure of information allows the user a faster and easier search of relevant information and information methods while moving along the traffic network elements. Therefore, the recommendations in designing future solutions and services based on possible technologies of short coverage area (RFID, NFC, Bluetooth, WiFi, RTLS) have been defined. These technologies allow communication connectivity of the users, other traffic entities and the entire traffic surrounding into a unique whole by using the principle of Internet of Things (IoT)

A Systematic Review of Urban Navigation Systems for Visually Impaired People

Blind and Visually impaired people (BVIP) face a range of practical difficulties when undertaking outdoor journeys as pedestrians. Over the past decade, a variety of assistive devices have been researched and developed to help BVIP navigate more safely and independently. In~addition, research in overlapping domains are addressing the problem of automatic environment interpretation using computer vision and machine learning, particularly deep learning, approaches. Our aim in this article is to present a comprehensive review of research directly in, or relevant to, assistive outdoor navigation for BVIP. We breakdown the navigation area into a series of navigation phases and tasks. We then use this structure for our systematic review of research, analysing articles, methods, datasets and current limitations by task. We also provide an overview of commercial and non-commercial navigation applications targeted at BVIP. Our review contributes to the body of knowledge by providing a comprehensive, structured analysis of work in the domain, including the state of the art, and guidance on future directions. It will support both researchers and other stakeholders in the domain to establish an informed view of research progress

Precise positioning in real-time using GPS-RTK signal for visually impaired people navigation system

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University, 24/9/2010.This thesis presents the research carried out to investigate and achieve highly reliable and accurate navigation system of guidance for visually impaired pedestrians. The main aim with this PhD project has been to identify the limits and insufficiencies in utilising Network Real-Time Kinematic Global Navigation Satellite Systems (NRTK GNSS) and its augmentation techniques within the frame of pedestrian applications in a variety of environments and circumstances. Moreover, the system can be used in many other applications, including unmanned vehicles, military applications, police, etc. NRTK GNSS positioning is considered to be a superior solution in comparison to the conventional standalone Global Positioning System (GPS) technique whose accuracy is highly affected by the distance dependent errors such as satellite orbital and atmospheric biases. Nevertheless, NRTK GNSS positioning is particularly constrained by wireless data link coverage, delays of correction and transmission and completeness, GPS and GLONASS signal availability, etc., which could downgrade the positioning quality of the NRTK results. This research is based on the dual frequency NRTK GNSS (GPS and GLONASS). Additionally, it is incorporated into several positioning and communication methods responsible for data correction while providing the position solutions, in which all identified contextual factors and application requirements are accounted. The positioning model operates through client-server based architecture consisted of a Navigation Service Centre (NSC) and a Mobile Navigation Unit (MNU). Hybrid functional approaches were consisting of several processing procedures allowing the positioning model to operate in position determination modes. NRTK GNSS and augmentation service is used if enough navigation information was available at the MNU using its local positioning device (GPS/GLONASS receiver).The positioning model at MNU was experimentally evaluated and centimetric accuracy was generally attained during both static and kinematic tests in various environments (urban, suburban and rural). This high accuracy was merely affected by some level of unavailability mainly caused by GPS and GLONASS signal blockage. Additionally, the influence of the number of satellites in view, dilution of precision (DOP) and age corrections (AoC) over the accuracy and stability of the NRTK GNSS solution was also investigated during this research and presented in the thesis. This positioning performance has outperformed the existing GPS service. In addition, utilising a simulation evaluation facility the positioning model at MNU performance was quantified with reference to a hybrid positioning service that will be offered by future Galileo Open Service (OS) along with GPS. However, a significant difference in terms of the service availability for the advantage of the hybrid system was experienced in all remaining scenarios and environments more especially the urban areas due to surrounding obstacles and conditions. As an outcome of this research a new and precise positioning model was proposed. The adaptive framework is understood as approaching an integration of the available positioning technology into the context of surrounding wireless communication for a maintainable performance. The positioning model has the capability of delivering indeed accurate, precise and consistent position solutions, and thus is fulfilling the requirements of visually impaired people navigation application, as identified in the adaptive framework

BlueEyes: assistive technology for visually impaired and blind people - a bluetooth

This report is presented to draw one solution “people to people” (P2P) through the mobile technology that promotes the change in the field of sustainability in relation to the Application system. The HCI interaction field, as the basis for the study of this project, is defined as a multidisciplinary field of knowledge, focusing on the design of computer technology and, in particular, on the interaction between humans and computers. For the development of this project it was necessary enough research information on the technologies that will be needed to create an application mobile. All this research and design belongs to just one of the various stages of this project that has the base of operations at ESEC

BlueEyes: assistive technology for visually impaired and blind people - a bluetooth

This report is presented to draw one solution “people to people” (P2P) through the mobile technology that promotes the change in the field of sustainability in relation to the Application system. The HCI interaction field, as the basis for the study of this project, is defined as a multidisciplinary field of knowledge, focusing on the design of computer technology and, in particular, on the interaction between humans and computers. For the development of this project it was necessary enough research information on the technologies that will be needed to create an application mobile. All this research and design belongs to just one of the various stages of this project that has the base of operations at ESEC

Anti Collision Sensor Based Blind Stick

Visually impaired people find difficulties detecting obstacles in front of them, during walking in the street, which makes it dangerous. The smart stick comes as a proposed solution to enable them to identify the world around. In this paper we propose a solution, represented in a smart stick with ultrasonic sensor to detect any other obstacles in front, left and right of the user, within a range of four meters. Moreover, another sensor is placed at the bottom of the stick for the sake of avoiding puddles. The vibration of motor is activated when any obstacle is detected. The blind stick is integrated with ultrasonic sensor along with GPS ampGSM based Navigation/Tracking system. This proposed system uses the microcontroller ATmega 328 embedded system. The stick is capable of detecting all obstacles in the range 4 meter during 39 ms and gives a suitable respect message empowering blind to move twice his normal speed because she/he feels safe. The smart stick is of low cost, fast response, low power consumption, light weight

Disabled People into Employment: Report of a UK Wide Survey of Good Practice in Projects with Disabled People and Employment Informing Ideas for the Development of a Strategic Framework For Action

DisabledPeopleinEmploymentNo76.pdf: 4123 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020