Walking between the Lines: Nonvisual Cues for Maintaining Headings during Street Crossings

Abstract

Five cues were evaluated with respect to their usefulness in directing the headings of pedestrians who were blind during street crossings. The study was conducted at a simulated crosswalk, with the angle of the crosswalk varied relative to the approach and direction of the slope of the ramp. Three cues worked well over the distance equivalent to the width of a six-lane road.

Nonvisual Cues for Aligning to Cross Streets

“…Accurate initial alignment may not be sufficient to enable them to maintain an accurate heading, particularly for long crossings or those where there is little or no vehicular traffic parallel to the crosswalk. In the second study in this series (Scott et al, 2011), we evaluated the usefulness of cues for maintaining a proper heading over simulated street crossings of one-, three-, and six-lane streets (approximately 12, 36, and 72 feet).…”

Beaconing Signalization Substantially Reduces Blind Pedestrians’ Veer on Snow-Covered Pavement

“…The beaconing apparatus was functionally the same as that evaluated in three other simulation and crosswalk studies of beaconing APS (9, 24, 25), except that the tripod-mounted beacon was actuated by a hardwired on–off switch near the location of the beacon rather than by a pedestrian push button at Start. The system was battery powered, with the loudspeaker mounted 9 ft above the ground, 84 ft from Start (Figure 1 b ).…”

“…They placed their upper legs or the back of their bodies against the table and also used their hands to feel the table edge. Using one’s body to face perpendicular to a physical cue is the most effective known method of establishing a nonvisual walking trajectory (2, 9). Participants indicated when they believed themselves to be well aligned and began walking with their long canes after receiving confirmation that the research team was ready to begin.…”

“…The present study is a continuation of a line of research that began with studies that assessed the acoustic, timing, and location characteristics of various beacons (12, 14, 22, 23), after which a standard audible beacon, described later, was adopted for further study. These later studies all involved the measurement of veering with and without a beacon (9, 24, 25), along with other comparisons.…”

Görme Engelli̇lere Kardeş Öğreti̇mi̇yle Sunulan Elle Duvar Taki̇bi̇ Yaparak Yürüme Beceri̇si̇ni̇n Eşzamanli İpucuyla Öğreti̇mi̇ni̇n Etki̇li̇li̇ği̇

“…Mobility skills are important to sustain independence life for people with visual impairment (Scott, Barlow, Guth, Bentzen, Cunningham, Long, 2011). When the education curriculum is examined visually impairment schools adopted for mobility skills education and physical education (Altunay, 2000).…”