Micro-Navigation

The process of navigating the immediate environment — detecting and avoiding obstacles, following the edge of a pavement, identifying surface changes, and maintaining a safe path. For blind and visually impaired travellers, micro-navigation is the domain of traditional primary mobility aids such as the long cane (which detects obstacles and surface changes through touch) and the guide dog (which steers around obstacles). Micro-navigation deals with the physical space within a few metres of the traveller, in contrast to macro-navigation which addresses route-level wayfinding across larger distances.