Abstract
Visually impaired people usually require assistive technology to aid mobility and retain independent travel within the community environment. This overview chapter opens with a discussion of the travel activity and investigates how people negotiate a desired route or journey. Assistive technology for visually impaired person’s travel has had a long history and this is briefly reviewed. One finding is that there have been quite a few attempts to harness the available contemporary technological advances in mobility assistive devices. The subsequent development of the chapter pursues three main topics: obstacle avoidance, navigation and orientation and the design of accessible environments. The presentation reveals that most effort has been devoted to obstacle avoidance assistive technology and that more recently global positioning system and mobile telephone technology has begun to impact the development of viable navigation and orientation assistive technology. The final section of the chapter reviews progress towards the accessible environment that is just beginning to appear in many cityscapes.
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Hersh, M., Johnson, M. (2008). Mobility: An Overview. In: Hersh, M., Johnson, M. (eds) Assistive Technology for Visually Impaired and Blind People. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-867-8_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-867-8_5
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