[Nfbk] New Mobility app developing

[Corbb O'Connor]

Hi all,

I know that this team's intentions were in the right place, but the problems with an app like this can easily be summarized in one of the writer's own words: "Working with Andres and his mobility specialist, these tech enthusiasts imagined themselves in the place of the visually impaired, walking through Resaca's halls blindfolded. By experiencing these challenges firsthand, the group pinpointed the features needed to make Hello Navi a success."

When designers imagine themselves in the place of a blind person without longer-term, immersive training in the use of a long white cane, it becomes clear that they believe blindness to be a tragedy. We as blind people have "challenges," yes. Very few blind people that I know travel independently in new areas by counting steps or only relying upon a GPS. Those that do find travel difficult and stick to predefined routes. 

Now, don't get me wrong: there's certainly some great work being done in the area of indoor navigation. Dianne Pawluk of Virginia Commonwealth University is leading a team to develop a device or software that will help a blind person to understand the layout of indoor areas like shopping malls. Tactile maps are becoming easier to produce. With systems like Ariadne, we can drag our fingers across a map on the iPhone to get a lay of the land. 

All of these aforementioned approaches rely upon a blind person receiving information in a non-visual way, then leave that person to interpret the data for himself or herself. An app like what the group described in this article relies upon a person or computer to direct a blind person entirely.

So, as Cassandra says, this is a neat idea: "This app has a stretch of tech tools we hope to incorporate. Using Google Indoor, we hope to upload our campus digital blueprints to create a 3D picture on the device..."

Even ignoring the idea that VoiceOver is a text-to-speech and not speech-to-text system, here's where they go wrong: "VoiceOver will allow Andres to speak into the phone and request to be directed to pre-recorded location points. The phone will speak back and guide him with directions and steps to get to his desired location."

Frankly, when a sighted person tells me to take 15 paces that way, then 50 paces to the right, I politely thank them, begin walking the route, and then ask for better directions. "The fifth door on the left" is much better than "50 paces."

So, before we go running to apps like this as a panacea, let's educate the developers (and even Andres, the blind student in this story) about how to use structured discovery cane travel technique that doesn't rely on a sighted instructor or step-by-step (pardon the pun) directions from a sighted person all the time.Z

Corbb


On Mar 27, 2014, at 9:42 AM, Cindy Smith <cindy.smith8109 at aol.com> wrote:

http://www.people.com/people/mobile/article/0,,20800087,00.html

Sent from my iPhone
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