Electronic systems designed to guide visually impaired people in public areas: Importance of environmental audio description

Abstract

This research had as main objective to contribute with the design of assistive technologies to assist the locomotion of visually impaired people. We sought to investigate aspects of audio description in portable electronic devices with synthesized voice for the guidance in public environments, to in’ public and mass transports. Previous research has shown that the use of electronic equipment with a specific format of audio description, with environmental information, may be of great importance for the autonomous mobility of visually impaired people. In this study, after bibliographic explorations, practical observations were performed in controlled and public environments in Sao Paulo city, using qualitative research techniques with visually impaired volunteers. The analysis of the experiments has demonstrated the importance of studying the phrases to be transmitted, with the purpose of correctly informing about the environment and the route.