A Touch Sensitive User Interface Approach on Smartphones for Visually Impaired and Blind Persons

2011 ◽  
pp. 585-594 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elmar Krajnc ◽  
Mathias Knoll ◽  
Johannes Feiner ◽  
Mario Traar
Keyword(s):  
User Interface ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Blind Persons

Visual Impairment is Not Blindness

1971 ◽  
Vol 65 (10) ◽  
pp. 334-336
Author(s):  
Benjamin Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Visual Impairment ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Essential Difference ◽  
Basic Principles ◽  
Functional Potential ◽  
Blind Persons ◽  
Partially Sighted ◽  
Visually Impaired Persons

□ Visual impairment is not necessarily blindness and the requirements of visually impaired persons are in many ways significantly different from those of blind persons. All too often agencies for the blind have not distinguished between these different requirements in providing services. The essential difference is that blind persons must rely on their other senses in order to function, while partially sighted persons must be helped to use whatever vision they have in coordination with their other senses. In providing services to partially sighted persons, the following basic principles should be considered: 1) Full service requires the cooperation of medical, physical, and behavioral specialists; 2) Services for partially sighted clients should be individualized on the basis of their differences in degree and quality of sight; 3) Whatever vision the client has should be augmented or strengthened through either mechanical or physical means; and 4) Clients should be helped to enhance their perception to its maximum functional potential.

scholarly journals Leading causes of blindness and visual impairment in the region of Eastern Herzegovina

2006 ◽  
Vol 59 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 15-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lala Ceklic ◽  
Slobodanka Latinovic ◽  
Petar Aleksic
Keyword(s):  
Visual Impairment ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Age Distribution ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Population Based ◽  
World Health ◽  
Visual Disability ◽  
Common Causes ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Blind Persons

Introduction. Visual impairment and blindness are serious social and health problems in the world. 1992 classification of visual disorders by World Health Organization has recently been implemented. The goal of this study was to determine common causes of visual impairment and blindness in the region of Eastern Herzegovina. Material and methods. In this population based study we have analyzed medical records stored in the regional Association of Visually Impaired and Blind Persons of the Republic of Srpska (Trebinje, Bileca, Foca, Eastern Sarajevo). The analysis included sex and age distribution of registered population, classification and leading causes of visual disability and blindness. Results. There are 298 registered persons with visual disability and blindness in the region of Eastern Herzegovina and Eastern Sarajevo. The prevalence of visual impairment and blindness in the aforementioned region is 0.1%. Among the studied population, there are more males than females with visual disability or blindness (56% versus 44%). Most (78%) of registered persons are blind, and only 22% are visually impaired. 43% of registered population are in the IV category and only 8.38% are registered in the II category. Only 2% of registered population are children. Common causes of visual disability and blindness in the region of Eastern Herzegovina are: glaucoma (22%), cataract (17%), myopia alta (13%), diabetic retinopathy (12%) and ocular trauma (11%). Common causes of children's visual impairment include: optic nerve anomalies, congenital cataract and premature retinopathy. Discussion and conclusion Compared with literature data, common causes of blindness and visual impairment in the region of Eastern Herzegovina do not differ significantly from those in other regions. Registration is based on the WHO model, but it is possible only by performing active epidemiological studies. .

Game Aspects in Collaborative Navigation of Blind Travelers

2016 ◽  
pp. 497-523
Author(s):  
Jan Balata ◽  
Zdenek Mikovec ◽  
Pavel Slavik ◽  
Miroslav Macik
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
User Interface ◽  
Navigation System ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Self Confidence ◽  
Game Mechanics ◽  
Impaired Person ◽  
Game Elements ◽  
Visually Impaired Persons

This chapter shows how elements of gamification, i.e. game thinking and game mechanics, can be integrated into a collaborative navigation system for visually impaired persons in order encourage them to travel independently and thus improve their quality of life and self-confidence. The system supports independent navigation in unknown places by mediating help from another visually impaired person, who is familiar with the particular place. Our system utilizes a thermal user interface to introduce an additional communication channel and thus to increase the usability of the system. The system has been successfully enhanced by game elements and illustrates the potential of introducing game elements into these systems.

Benign Visual Hallucinations, or “Phantom Vision” in Visually Impaired and Blind Persons

1992 ◽  
Vol 86 (6) ◽  
pp. 245-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.E. Needham ◽  
R.E. Taylor
Keyword(s):  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Phantom Limb ◽  
Sensory Loss ◽  
Visual Hallucinations ◽  
Normal Response ◽  
Blind Persons

Benign visual hallucinations in adventitiously blind and sight-impaired persons occur frequently and are a normal response to this type of sensory loss. They correspond to aspects of the phantom-limb experience of amputees and thus may be conceptualized as instances of “phantom vision.” Data from the authors’ research on the visual experiences of 443 blinded veterans illustrate their typical features as well as their diversity.

Implications of the IBM Audio Typing Unit for Blind Word Processors

1982 ◽  
Vol 76 (10) ◽  
pp. 407-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard R. Day ◽  
Wayne Gum ◽  
William Degrasse
Keyword(s):  
Vocational Rehabilitation ◽  
Learning Process ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Rehabilitation Programs ◽  
Blind Persons ◽  
Word Processors ◽  
Do So

The Audio Typing Unit by IBM was designed to enable visually impaired typists to make revisions and review final copy without the assistance of sighted co-workers. The ability of the unit to do so, based on monitoring the performance of five subjects, is reviewed. The authors state that the unit has a significant impact upon the learning process for visually impaired word processors, and suggest incorporating training on the Audio Typing Unit into vocational rehabilitation programs for blind persons.

Making the Web Accessible to the Visually Impaired

2010 ◽  
pp. 265-277
Keyword(s):  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Textual Description ◽  
Benjamin Constant ◽  
Blind Persons ◽  
A Site ◽  
Visually Impaired Persons ◽  
Visually Disabled ◽  
The Web

Accessibility is the possibility of any person to make use of all the benefits of society, including the Internet. As the interfaces are typically graphic, sites can be an obstacle for visually impaired persons to access. For a site to be accessible to blind persons it’s necessary the information contained in the visual resources be reproduced by means of an “equivalent” textual description, capable of transmitting the same information as the visual resources. This study is aimed at identifying and defining usability guidance compliant with accessibility W3C directives that can facilitate the interaction between visually impaired and Internet and still guarantee sites with understandable navigation content. Towards this end an exploratory study was conducted, comprised of a field study and interviews with visually disabled people from Instituto Benjamin Constant, reference center in Brazil for the education of visually impaired persons, in order to get to know these users better.

Addressing Challenges in Web Accessibility for the Blind and Visually Impaired

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela Guercio ◽  
Kathleen A. Stirbens ◽  
Joseph Williams ◽  
Charles Haiber
Keyword(s):  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Preliminary Test ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Prototype System ◽  
Preliminary Evaluation ◽  
Blind And Visually Impaired ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Blind Persons ◽  
The Waves

Searching for relevant information on the web is an important aspect of distance learning. This activity is a challenge for visually impaired distance learners. While sighted people have the ability to filter information in a fast and non sequential way, blind persons rely on tools that process the information in a sequential way. Learning is slowed by screen readers which do not interact well with web pages. This paper introduces WAVES, a tool for the fast retrieval of information in a web page for blind and visually impaired people. The paper describes the WAVES prototype, a system that performs a page restructuring of webpages. The system analyzes webpages, identifies elements of interests from a webpage, evaluates their importance by using semantic information and visual cues, sorts them by importance and uses them to restructure the webpage so that data from the original webpage are presented to the reader in a concise format. A preliminary evaluation test of the prototype system has been performed with a sample set of users. The results of the preliminary test show an increase in speed and accuracy when the WAVES system has been used.

The Use of Fax Technology to Address the Reading Needs of Blind and Visually Impaired Persons

1990 ◽  
Vol 84 (10) ◽  
pp. 509-513
Author(s):  
W. Gerrey ◽  
J. Brabyn ◽  
W. Crandall
Keyword(s):  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Office Workers ◽  
Preliminary Results ◽  
Blind And Visually Impaired ◽  
Visually Impaired People ◽  
Impaired People ◽  
Blind Persons ◽  
Visually Impaired Persons

Although fax communications pose a problem of accessibility for blind and visually impaired office workers, with centralized readers’ services they could be used to address the wider reading needs of blind and visually impaired people. With this technology, blind persons with fax machines could send unknown print to readers at a centralized readers’ service, who would read facsimiles of the documents over voice phones. This article discusses the specifications for appropriate equipment and protocols and presents the preliminary results of a study of such a system.

The Impact of Significant Adults’ Expectations on the Life Style of Visually Impaired Children

1976 ◽  
Vol 70 (7) ◽  
pp. 286-290
Author(s):  
Nazneen S. Mayadas ◽  
Wayne D. Duehn
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Life Style ◽  
Visually Impaired ◽  
Significant Others ◽  
Role Expectations ◽  
Blind Persons ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Impaired Children ◽  
Visually Impaired Children ◽  
Significant Adults

Examines the behavior performance of blind persons in view of the role expectations of significant others. The findings suggest that there is a correlation between the expectations of significant others and the “blind role” assumed by blind persons. However, it was also found that in many circumstances blind persons act in accordance with accepted social norms due to broader societal conditioning or because of their own self-expectations.

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