Where are we now?

1. Where are we now? Environmental and technological dimensions to visually impaired people’s mobility • Bryan Matthews • June 2014

2. Visual Impairment and Mobility • Approx. 285m visually impaired people worldwide • Approx. 65% over 65 • In the UK, 46% have contact with someone from the outside world less than once a week! As the population ages … • Approx. 50% would like to go out more often • 29% feel they cannot go out unaccompanied • Independence and consequent health problems caused by • lack of exercise, • poor access to health services and • poor nutrition due to difficulties getting to shops.

3. Components of Wayfinding • Getting information and using it - R; • Orientation (knowing current location) - R&L; • Navigating (making route decisions) - R&L; • Mental mapping (using cues to predict the best next step) -L; and • Exit and entrance identification (locating and moving through accesspoints) - R; • Closure (detecting and arriving at the right place - L.

4. Understanding Visually Impaired People’s Methods of Wayfinding • VIPs quite capable of formulating spatio-cognitive maps (Passini et al,1990) • Evidence that VIPs: • “prepared journeys in more detail, • made more decisions during the journey, and • relied on more units of information” • (Passini and Proulx, 1988). • Need to develop an “environmental information system” accessible to all  • “a coherent ensemble of architectural and graphic cues that provides the decision-making user with adequate wayfinding information at the appropriate place in a form that is both accessible and understandable” (Passini, 1984).

5. But better understanding needed of: • what spatial information should be given; • in what form that information should be given; • at what locations information should be given; and • how these vary with key parameters, e.g. visual impairment and time.

6. Inclusive Design • An inclusive process; • Led by accredited professionals; • Involving users; • With appropriate consultee training • Addressing cases on their merits

7. Tactile Paving • Source: DfT, 2010

8. Follow the yellow-brick road • Source: travelinghero.blogspot.com

9. Shared Space • Removing the demarcations between pedestrian space and vehicle space • Sharing leads to greater freedom for pedestrian and greater caution from motorist • Generally controversial • Specifically problematic for visually impaired mobility • Photo: Exhibition Road, London • (source: www.dailymail.co.uk)

10. Road Crossings • Range of formal and informal crossing-types Visual, audio and tactile indicators • Current work for Guide Dogs – searching for evidence of: • 1. The importance of road crossings for pedestrians • 2. The extent of use or reliance on crossings • 3. pedestrians' preferences between crossing-types • 4. How pedestrians use crossings (independently or accompanied) • 5. thoughts on informal crossings provided in shared space.

11. Walk this way… route

12. Talk this way…

13. Technology • Can technology be the answer? • GPS and mapping technology • Augmented reality • Personal Positioning Systems • Triggered information (Beacons) • Electronic leadlines? • Exciting but not alternative to inclusively designed built environment

14. The Mobility Opportunities of ICT • Websites, Assistive Technologies and Apps • Design • Cost • Training • Take-up • The digital sub-divide?