Personalized Legibility of an Indoor Environment for People with Motor Disabilities: A New Framework

Abstract

A mental map refers to the personalized representation of spatial knowledge in the human brain and is based on the perceptions, experiences, and interactions of people with their environment. For people with motor disabilities (PWMD) some perceptions and interactions with the environment during their mobility occur in different ways and consequently lead to different mental maps. For example, these people perceive and interact differently with elevators, escalators, and steps during their mobility. Hence, their perceptions of the level of complexity and the legibility of an environment may be different. Legibility of an environment is an indicator that measures the level of complexity and the ease of understanding of that environment by a person. In the literature, legibility is mostly estimated based on the environmental factors such as visibility, connectivity, and layout complexity for a given space. However, the role of personal factors (e.g., capacities) is rarely considered in the legibility assessment, which complicates its personalization. This paper aims at studying the influence of personal factors on the evaluation of the legibility of indoor environments for PWMD. In addition to the visibility, the connectivity, and the complexity of indoor environments, we also integrate the influence of the level of accessibility (i.e., presence of facilitators and obstacles) in the legibility assessment process. The Quebec City Convention Centre is selected as our study area and the legibility of this building is quantified. We show how the integration of the above-mentioned factors can influence the legibility for PWMD and hence their mobility performance in those environments.