How can the architectural design of public buildings be improved for Visually Impaired people?

The aim of this paper is to identify issues that visually impaired (VI) people face in public buildings and, where possible, suggest design solutions. Research methods involved interviewing VI individuals with varying levels of vision, to gain first-hand insight into their experiences within public buildings. Several discussed issues included the importance of multi-sensory design and the observation that acoustic features can lead to disorientation. The paper considers use of lighting, importance of design consistency, and benefits of natural light and hindrance of glare. It emphasises the importance of contrast, to distinguish between features, around doorframes and on the nosing of stairs, and use of staircase tactile indicators and extended handrails, to improve safety. The paper also highlights the importance of consulting VI individuals to make use of their embodied expertise in a co-design process, to hopefully help make public buildings more accessible to VI people

Wearable Urban Mobility Assistive Device for Visually Impaired Pedestrians Using a Smartphone and a Tactile-Foot Interface

This paper reports on the progress of a wearable assistive technology (AT) device designed to enhance the independent, safe, and efficient mobility of blind and visually impaired pedestrians in outdoor environments. Such device exploits the smartphone’s positioning and computing capabilities to locate and guide users along urban settings. The necessary navigation instructions to reach a destination are encoded as vibrating patterns which are conveyed to the user via a foot-placed tactile interface. To determine the performance of the proposed AT device, two user experiments were conducted. The first one requested a group of 20 voluntary normally sighted subjects to recognize the feedback provided by the tactile-foot interface. The results showed recognition rates over 93%. The second experiment involved two blind voluntary subjects which were assisted to find target destinations along public urban pathways. Results show that the subjects successfully accomplished the task and suggest that blind and visually impaired pedes-trians might find the AT device and its concept approach useful, friendly, fast to master, and easy to use

A HoloLens Application to Aid People who are Visually Impaired in Navigation Tasks

Day-to-day activities such as navigation and reading can be particularly challenging for people with visual impairments. Reading text on signs may be especially difficult for people who are visually impaired because signs have variable color, contrast, and size. Indoors, signage may include office, classroom, restroom, and fire evacuation signs. Outdoors, they may include street signs, bus numbers, and store signs. Depending on the level of visual impairment, just identifying where signs exist can be a challenge. Using Microsoft\u27s HoloLens, an augmented reality device, I designed and implemented the TextSpotting application that helps those with low vision identify and read indoor signs so that they can navigate text-heavy environments. The application can provide both visual information and auditory information. In addition to developing the application, I conducted a user study to test its effectiveness. Participants were asked to find a room in an unfamiliar hallway. Those that used the TextSpotting application completed the task less quickly yet reported higher levels of ease, comfort, and confidence, indicating the application\u27s limitations and potential in providing an effective means to navigate unknown environments via signage