Browsing by Subject "Visual Impairment"
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Item Investigating the Navigational Habits of People who are Blind in India(ACM, 2021-10-17) Anirudh Nagraj; Ravi Kuber; Foad Hamidi; Raghavendra S.G. PrasadAssistive navigational technologies offer considerable promise to people who are blind. However, uptake of these technologies has traditionally been lower in low and middle income countries (LMICs), where levels of investment and maintenance in infrastructure differ from upper middle (UMICs) and high income countries (HICs). In this paper, we describe a qualitative study undertaken with 14 people who identify as legally-blind in an LMIC (India) to understand their experiences and strategies used when navigating within a metropolitan area. We highlight a set of scenarios impacting people who are blind within the context studied. These include crossing busy highways, navigating in the rainy season, collaborating with others to navigate at night, and using older public transportation. Our work brings attention to areas where the latest successful and well-publicized innovations in blind navigation may fall short when used in an Indian metropolitan area. We suggest that designers should be cognizant of the role that infrastructure (particularly its shortcomings) and environmental factors may play when navigating in LMICs such as India, with a view to designing assistive navigational technologies to better match the needs of users within these contexts.Item Simulating Homonymous Hemianopsia for the Care Team(2021-05) Newman, Cory; Walsh, Greg; Kohl, Deborah; University of Baltimore. School of Information Arts and Technologies; University of Baltimore. Master of Science in Interaction Design and Information Architecture.Homonymous hemianopsia is a visual impairment that involves the bilateral loss of a complete visual field. While research has been done to ascertain the details of the cause and prognosis of homonymous hemianopsia, an obvious disparity arose in the research on how to educate the supporting care team of a person with homonymous hemianopsia to maximize the creation of educational and rehabilitation plans. This research presents two studies focused on closing that gap by providing an alternative method of understanding. In the initial study, 16 participants with a confirmed caregiver relationship to one or more persons with homonymous hemianopsia were surveyed on their personal knowledge of the visual impairment. These participants were asked to express any visual obstacles they have encountered, and to ascertain the availability of a device or program that could provide an interactive interpretation of how their homonymous hemianopsia patient views their surroundings. Survey results confirmed the need for a program that could easily simulate homonymous hemianopsia for the care provider. An additional usability study was completed by eight of the 16 previous participants on a mobile homonymous hemianopsia simulation application prototype. User tests showed that participants gained a significant increase in understanding of how those with a homonymous hemianopsia visual impairment view the environment. Results confirmed that the mobile simulation application was regarded as easy to use and expected to be utilized often. Additionally, it was discovered that future development could include the simulation of additional visual impairments to assist a greater number of care teams who are striving to safely engage and encourage their patients to thrive in the world around them.