Accessible wayfinding testbed: Infrastructure and components

Abstract

Despite considerable recent interest in research related to wayfinding and navigation of pedestrians, the needs and preferences of people with disabilities (PWDs) are not yet fully addressed. Some of still unaddressed issues are related to understanding the different mobility challenges of PWDs, while others are related to the accessibility of routes and navigation systems/services. Emergence of advanced systems and services that can assist PWDs in wayfinding and navigation calls for the development of an accessible wayfinding platform facilitating the evaluation of accessibility of indoor and outdoor routes. In this paper, we propose and present an accessible wayfinding testbed which has three components: database, accessibility index, and visualization. The database component includes networks of sidewalks outdoors and building elements indoors with accessibility elements for PWDs. The accessibility index determines the level of accessibility of each element in a network as is perceived by PWDs. The visualization component visualizes the routes, accessible and others, in a simple form allowing PWDs, urban planners, and software developers, among others, to evaluate the accessibility of the travelling environment. The paper discusses the details of the testbed and a prototype accessible wayfinding testbed.