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Navigation for the visually handicapped : Going beyond tactile cartography
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Jacobson, R. Dan |
| Copyright Year | 1999 |
| Abstract | Wayfindmg for the visually handicapped, is made more complex by the loss of their visual sense. In spite of this they can hold spatial concepts and are often competent navigators. Tactile maps, those sensed by touch, have been shown to improve their spatial awareness and mobility. It is however the development of a personal guidance system (PGS) relying on recently developed technologies that may herald a break through for navigation for the blind and visually impaired. It would enable the visualty handicapped to move more freely and independently through their environment. It would provide on-line interactions with representations of their environment, in audio or tactile form, providing orientation, location and guidance information, enabling them to plan, monitor and execute navigation decisions. Introduction Navigation, the art of wayfinding, is an ability common to us all. It is mostly a subconscious, innate process but is also a learned bchaviour, one that we develop from early childhood. A process that we rely on countless times to function in the spatial world. If ‘wayfinding depends in essence upon a knowledge of the spatial relations between places’ (Downs and Stea, 1977, p.59) then the visually impaired and the blind could be expected to be spatially handicapped. For without vision, the richest source of spatial and environmental information (Warren, 1978) they face many unique problems. The key environmental information needed to build the spatial relations between places has to be gained through senses other than vision. This creates a severely disadvantaged position, as information about their immediate environment, the next few steps, can only be explored by using a cane and other non visual cues. It may be the case though that in spite of the loss of one sense, the information they receive through their remaining senses provides enough information to form the basis for spatial cognition. Their cognitive mapping skills are flexible enough to adapt to this sensory loss. However the congenitally blind, those blind from birth, were at first thought to suffer from an absence of spatial cognition (Merry and Merry, 1933). It has since become apparent that they can deal with spatial concepts (Worchel 195 1; Fischer 1964; Kennedy 1983) and they are competent wayfinders (Leonard and Newman 1967), although their emphases are based upon different information. |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://people.ucalgary.ca/~rjacobso/web/publications/SGEOG94.PDF |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
