Recognition distance of pedestrian traffic signals by individuals with low vision

Abstract

Forty-one individuals with moderate-to-severe vision loss participated in a study to determine the minimum distance they required to correctly identify three different pedestrian traffic icon symbols, one of which was presented with an augmented light source. We found that subjects could identify the WALK icon without the augmented light source information, or animated eyes, from farther away than either the WALK icon with the augmented light source information or the DON'T WALK icon. These results differ from those of a previous study, which found that subjects could correctly identify the WALK icon with the augmented light source from a greater distance than the WALK or DON'T WALK icons without the augmented light source.