A mobile application concept to encourage independent mobility for blind and visually impaired students

  • Authors:

  • Jukka Liimatainen;Markku Häkkinen;Tuula Nousiainen;Marja Kankaanranta;Pekka Neittaanmäki

  • Affiliations:

  • Agora Center, University of Jyväskylä, Finland;Department of Mathematical Information Technology, University of Jyväskylä, Finland;Agora Center, University of Jyväskylä, Finland;Agora Center, University of Jyväskylä, Finland;Department of Mathematical Information Technology, University of Jyväskylä, Finland

  • Venue:
  • ICCHP'12 Proceedings of the 13th international conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs - Volume Part II
  • Year:
  • 2012

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Abstract

This paper presents a user-centric application development process for mobile application to blind and visually impaired students. The development process connects the assistive technology experts, teachers and students from the school for visually impaired together to participate to the design of the mobile application. The data for the analysis is gathered from interviews and workshops with the target group. The main goal of the project is to examine how mobile application can be used to encourage and motivate visually impaired students to move independently indoors and outdoors. The application allows the students to interact with their environment through use of sensor technology now standard on most smart and feature phones. We present a user-centric application development process, report on findings from the initial user trials, and propose a framework for future phases of the project.