A Refreshable Tactile Display Effectively Supports Cognitive Mapping Followed by Orientation and Mobility Tasks: A Comparative Multi-modal Study Involving Blind and Low-vision Participants

We investigate the role of refreshable tactile display in supporting the learning of cognitive maps, followed by actual exploration of a real environment that matches that map. We test both blind and low-vision persons and compare displaying maps in three information modes: with a pin array matrix, with raised paper and with verbal descriptions. We find that the pin matrix leads to a better way of externalizing a cognitive map and reduces the performance gap between blind and low-vision people. The entire evaluation is performed by participants in autonomy and suggests that refreshable tactile displays may be used to train blind persons in orientation and mobility tasks.