Literature Reviews
Reviewed research papers, articles, and publications relevant to digital accessibility.
80 results found tagged orientation and mobility.
-
"Pray Before You Step Out": Describing Personal and Situational Blind Navigation Behaviors
This paper presents a formative study exploring how 30 adults with vision impairments use technology and personal strategies to navigate both indoor and outdoor environments. Rather than introducing new navigation technology, the research aims to bui…
-
Uncovering Information Needs for Independent Spatial Learning for Users Who Are Visually Impaired
This paper presents two studies examining how visually impaired individuals learn about their environments and build cognitive maps — the mental representations of spatial relationships that sighted people largely construct through casual visual obse…
-
Hacking Blind Navigation
This workshop summary describes a one-day CHI 2019 workshop designed to bring together researchers from multiple disciplines working on assistive navigation technologies for blind people. The organizers — experts from Carnegie Mellon University, Univ…
-
Headlock: A Wearable Navigation Aid that Helps Blind Cane Users Traverse Large Open Spaces
This demo paper presents HEADLOCK, a navigation aid built for an optical head-mounted display (HMD) that helps blind cane users traverse large open spaces — environments like building foyers, plazas, and parking lots that lack the tactile boundaries …
-
"Just Let the Cane Hit It": How the Blind and Sighted See Navigation Differently
This paper reveals fundamental mismatches between how blind and sighted people understand pedestrian navigation, drawing on over a year of immersive qualitative research including focus groups, diary studies, and partner observations. The researchers…
-
Orienting Kinesthetically: A Haptic Handheld Wayfinder for People with Visual Impairments
This paper presents a novel haptic direction indicator that provides real-time navigational guidance through kinesthetic cues rather than audio or vibrotactile feedback. The device exploits a perceptual phenomenon called the "pseudo-attraction force …
-
Usability of a Multimodal Video Game to Improve Navigation Skills for Blind Children
This paper presents an evaluative study of a multimodal system combining a custom haptic device (Digital Clock Carpet) with a 3D audio-based video game (MOVA3D) to develop orientation and mobility (O&M) skills in blind school-aged children. The Digit…
-
Mental Maps and the Use of Sensory Information by Blind and Partially Sighted People
This qualitative study addresses a significant gap in understanding how blind and partially sighted people form and use spatial representations (mental maps) during real-world travel. Through semi-structured interviews with 100 participants across fi…
-
X-Road: Virtual Reality Glasses for Orientation and Mobility Training of People with Visual Impairments
This paper presents X-Road, an affordable and accessible virtual reality system designed for Orientation and Mobility (O&M) training of students with visual impairments. O&M classes teach essential navigation skills like crossing streets, but real-wo…
-
Use of an Indoor Navigation System by Sighted and Blind Travelers: Performance Similarities across Visual Status and Age
This study evaluates an indoor navigation system using commercial iOS devices and Bluetooth beacons to guide blind and visually impaired (BVI) travelers through complex university buildings. The research compared two navigation conditions: a system-a…