Technology-mediated pedestrian wayfinding under consideration of visual impairment and dual sensory loss

Keywords: human wayfinding, navigation, mobile technology, visual impairment, deafblindness
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 66

Abstract

Only few mobile wayfinding solutions consider the information needs of those who are visually impaired, blind, or deafblind, and desired functionality remains fragmented. Specifically comorbid impairments, and hearing loss in particular, have received little consideration in empirical research on human wayfinding. As it stands, research on human wayfinding under consideration of dual sensory loss is characterized by a scarcity of empirical evaluations, established methodological approaches, and experimental protocols. In this paper, we report on our group's mixed-methods evaluations of the wayfinding experiences of visually impaired and deafblind adult pedestrian travelers in an urban environment. On that account, our collaborative research group of researchers and practitioners in geographic information science and Orientation and Mobility (O&M) devised experimental procedures to capture and evaluate participants' wayfinding performance, confidence, and perceptions during wayfinding. Specifically, participants were asked to complete a set of unfamiliar pedestrian routes on an urban college campus using different wayfinding modalities. The routes were designed to resemble real-world travel and to explicitly combine indoor and outdoor route segments. Our experimental design afforded a comparative assessment of the participants' wayfinding performance and experience in conjunction with the wayfinding support tools that were used during wayfinding.