A Survey of Outdoor Travel for Visually Impaired People Who Live in Latin-American Region

Abstract

Most remarkable problems which VI (visually impaired) people have during urban traveling in Latin-American countries are not well known. This results in the misunderstanding of challenges and requirements for this community and in the generation of inaccurate assistive traveling solutions (e.g. inaccessible mobile applications). 126 participants were surveyed from the Latin-American region. This survey summarized in 28 on-line questions the most important difficulties which VI population have in their urban traveling; moreover, we asked about how they perceive and use mobile technologies as traveling assistance. We inquired about urban navigation daily life problems and the exploitation of current mobile technologies. Participants established a preference for smartphones instead of dedicated assistive devices, and the availability to be assisted through online social media.