Using Sound to Help Visually Impaired Children Play Independently

Play is important in the early development of young children, as it encourages them to explore the world, develop skills and learn to socialise with their peers. Blind and visually impaired children face challenges that can stop them becoming involved in play activities at nursery and school, leading to dependence on adults and reducing the benefit of playtime. We are exploring the use of an audio bracelet for young children, which uses sound to help them overcome these challenges through better awareness of their surroundings. We describe the design and prototyping of our system and present scenarios which demonstrate its use

Audible Beacons and Wearables in Schools: Helping Young Visually Impaired Children Play and Move Independently

Young children with visual impairments tend to engage less with their surroundings, limiting the benefits from activities at school. We investigated novel ways of using sound from a bracelet, such as speech or familiar noises, to tell children about nearby people, places and activities, to encourage them to engage more during play and help them move independently. We present a series of studies, the first two involving visual impairment educators, that give insight into challenges faced by visually impaired children at school and how sound might help them. We then present a focus group with visually impaired children that gives further insight into the effective use of sound. Our findings reveal novel ways of combining sounds from wearables with sounds from the environment, motivating audible beacons, devices for audio output and proximity estimation. We present scenarios, findings and a design space that show the novel ways such devices could be used alongside wearables to help visually impaired children at school