Empowering people who are blind or visually impaired (BVI) to enhance their orientation and mobility skills is critical to equalizing their access to social and economic opportunities. To manage this crucial challenge, we employed a novel design process based on a large-scale, longitudinal, community-based structure. Across three annual programs we engaged with the BVI community in online and in-person modes. In total, our team included 67 total BVI participatory design participants online, 11 BVI co-designers in-person, and 4 BVI program coordinators. Through this design process we built a mobile application that enables users to generate, share, and navigate maps of indoor and outdoor environments without the need to instrument each environment with beacons or fiducial markers. We evaluated this app at a healthcare facility, and participants in the evaluation rated the app highly with respect to its design, features, and potential for positive impact on quality of life.
@article{arxiv.2410.00192,
title = {Large-scale, Longitudinal, Hybrid Participatory Design Program to Create Navigation Technology for the Blind},
author = {Daeun Joyce Chung and Muya Guoji and Nina Mindel and Alexis Malkin and Fernando Albertorio and Shane Lowe and Chris McNally and Casandra Xavier and Paul Ruvolo},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2410.00192},
year = {2025}
}