The Effectiveness of an Interactive Digital Map for Visually Impaired People

Abstract

Individuals with visual impairment or blindness often experience problems with unfamiliar surroundings, especially when they want to know about the existence of an area where they live or a place they want to visit. With a map application that can help people with visual impairments, the application is developed unlike ordinary maps, which have sound and vibration features to support visually impaired users. The map application was developed based on interviews and literature studies of respondents during the research. The test scenario used 12 respondents divided into 3 experimental groups, each given 20 minutes, 10 minutes, and 5 minutes. Furthermore, the use of questions for spatial knowledge of an area is given to test the success of the maps that have been made during the research. The test scenario results show an increase in spatial knowledge when using a map developed with sound and vibration features for visually impaired users. With the technology created, it can help individuals with visual impairments in understanding an area and with the help of sound and vibration support features in the map application for users with visual impairments.