Improving Accessibility Through VGI and Crowdsourcing

2019 ◽  
pp. 571-589
Author(s):  
Igor Gomes Cruz ◽  
Claudio E.C. Campelo

Accessibility is an important element in the life of those who have certain limitations, such as the physically disabled and visually impaired people. However, one of the greatest challenges for this group is to find paths and areas adapted to their limitations while performing their daily activities, since not all environments they explore have these characteristics. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and the crowdsourcing technique appear to be quite useful to develop solutions to overcome these challenges, since these techniques are naturally cheap as they rely on human sensors as the main agent of information delivery. In this chapter, we discuss how these techniques can help mitigate accessibility problems and present some existing research and applications in the field.

Crowdsourcing ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 374-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Igor Gomes Cruz ◽  
Claudio E.C. Campelo

Accessibility is an important element in the life of those who have certain limitations, such as the physically disabled and visually impaired people. However, one of the greatest challenges for this group is to find paths and areas adapted to their limitations while performing their daily activities, since not all environments they explore have these characteristics. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and the crowdsourcing technique appear to be quite useful to develop solutions to overcome these challenges, since these techniques are naturally cheap as they rely on human sensors as the main agent of information delivery. In this chapter, we discuss how these techniques can help mitigate accessibility problems and present some existing research and applications in the field.


Author(s):  
Igor Gomes Cruz ◽  
Claudio E.C. Campelo

Accessibility is an important element in the life of those who have certain limitations, such as the physically disabled and visually impaired people. However, one of the greatest challenges for this group is to find paths and areas adapted to their limitations while performing their daily activities, since not all environments they explore have these characteristics. Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and the crowdsourcing technique appear to be quite useful to develop solutions to overcome these challenges, since these techniques are naturally cheap as they rely on human sensors as the main agent of information delivery. In this chapter, we discuss how these techniques can help mitigate accessibility problems and present some existing research and applications in the field.


Author(s):  
Kavita Pandey ◽  
Dhiraj Pandey ◽  
Vatsalya Yadav ◽  
Shriya Vikhram

Background: According to the WHO report, around 4.07% of the world's population is visually impaired. About 90% of the visually impaired users live in the lower economic strata. In the fast moving technology, most of the invention misses the need of these people. Mainly the technologies were designed for mainstream people; visually impaired people always find an inability to access it. This inability arises primarily for reasons such as cost, for example, Perkins Brailler costs 80-248 dollars for the simple purpose of Braille input. Another major reason is the hassle of carrying the big equipment. Objective: Keeping all this in mind and making technology as their best friends, MAGIC-1 has been designed. The goal is to provide a solution in terms of an application, which helps the visually impaired user in their daily life activities. Method: The proposed solution assists visually impaired users through smart phone technology. If visually impaired users ever wished to have a touched guide into a smart phone, MAGIC-1 has the solution that consolidates all the important features in their daily activities. Results: The performance of the solution as a whole and its individual features in terms of usability, utility and other metrics, etc. has been tested with sample visually impaired users. Moreover, their performances in term of Errors per Word and Words per Minute have been observed. Conclusion: MAGIC-I, the proposed solution works as an assistant of visually impaired users to overcome their daily struggles and stay more connected to the world. A visually impaired user can communicate via their mobile devices with features like eyes free texting using braille, voice calling etc. They can easily take help in an emergency situation with the options of SOS emergency calling and video assistance.


Author(s):  
Amila Jaganjac ◽  
Amra Mačak Hadžiomerović ◽  
Bakir Katana ◽  
Namik Trtak ◽  
Eldad Kaljić ◽  
...  

Introduction: The challenges faced by visually impaired people in their efforts to integrate themselves into the labor market and the general position of persons with disabilities, regarding their employment and social security, is extremely difficult. Employment is the best safeguard against social exclusion and one of the main ways to achieve a full involvement in the society of the visually impaired people.Methods: The research was conducted on a sample of 25 visually impaired people employed at “TMP” d.o.o. Sarajevo. The study was used as a cross-sectional survey method wherein data were collected through appropriate survey instruments, using a modified survey questionnaire.Results: Out of the total number of respondents, 48% are male and 52% are female. The majority of respondents use other persons’ assistance when moving (n = 16). The largest number of respondents had 100% visual impairment (n = 17). The majority of subjects have no strenuous physical activity. The largest number of respondents during the previous week walked for at least 10 minutes, in the sequence of all 7 days and was driven in motor vehicles. When doing household chores, 56% of respondents said they had no difficulty. The most common difficulties in recreation, sports and physical activity in leisure time, that were encountered by 32% of respondents, are poor sound signalling and difficulties of visual nature, though 68% of respondents said that they had no difficulty in their recreational activities.Conclusion: The daily activities of employed visually impaired persons have a positive impact on their quality of life. Various are occupations of visually impaired people that improve their quality of life.


CICTP 2020 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ammar Muhammad ◽  
Qizhou Hu ◽  
Muhammad Tayyab ◽  
Yikai Wu ◽  
Muhammad Ahtsham

Author(s):  
Olga Novikova ◽  

The special library acts as the cultural and educational center for visually impaired people, and as the center for continuing education. The multifunctional performance of the library is substantiated. The joint projects accomplished in cooperation with theatres and museums and aimed at integrating the visually impaired people into the society are described. Advanced training projects for the library professionals accomplished in 2018 are discussed.


Author(s):  
Heather Tilley ◽  
Jan Eric Olsén

Changing ideas on the nature of and relationship between the senses in nineteenth-century Europe constructed blindness as a disability in often complex ways. The loss or absence of sight was disabling in this period, given vision’s celebrated status, and visually impaired people faced particular social and educational challenges as well as cultural stereotyping as poor, pitiable and intellectually impaired. However, the experience of blind people also came to challenge received ideas that the visual was the privileged mode of accessing information about the world, and contributed to an increasingly complex understanding of the tactile sense. In this chapter, we consider how changing theories of the senses helped shape competing narratives of identity for visually impaired people in the nineteenth century, opening up new possibilities for the embodied experience of blind people by impressing their sensory ability, rather than lack thereof. We focus on a theme that held particular social and cultural interest in nineteenth-century accounts of blindness: travel and geography.


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