Feeling your way around: Assessing the perceived utility of multi-scale indoor tactile maps

Abstract

Tactile maps of indoor spaces have great potential for supporting pre-journey spatial learning by blind travelers. Due to the limited resolution of tactile sensing, though, only a limited amount of spatial detail can be embossed in a map at a certain scale. We conducted a focus group with blind participants in order to obtain some insight on the perceived utility of using multiple maps at different spatial scales, and thus different levels of detail, to represent the interior of a building.