Turn Left Turn Right - Delving type and modality of instructions in navigation assistant systems for people with visual impairments
Bineeth Kuriakose, Ida Marie Ness, Maja Å skov Tengstedt, Jannicke Merete Svendsen, Terese Bjørseth, Bijay Lal Pradhan, Raju Shrestha
Abstract
Receiving navigation directions and information through pertinent channels is essential for people with visual impairments when they use navigation assistant systems. Different navigation systems have embraced diverse methods and modalities to give navigation instructions to users. Furthermore, various studies have been reported analyzing the modality preferences of people with visual impairments. They have reported results mainly via surveys or interviews. In this work, we have extensively studied the navigation information people with visual impairments would like to receive and how they would prefer it. Our research adopted a mixed-method design consisting of an experiment followed by a questionnaire and an interview with participants with visual impairments and with 20/20 vision but blindfolded. Unimodal (audio alone) and multimodal (audio and vibration) instruction modes and two types of audio instructions: short and descriptive have been tested. The navigation performance of participants is measured in terms of time taken and errors made while they navigate with different types and modes of instruction. The study’s findings imply no significant effect of instruction mode on time taken or errors made to complete the trials. The study could not find evidence that participants prefer descriptive instructions over short instructions. Furthermore, no evidence supports that participants prefer to hear details about the environment and obstacles during navigation. Different participants prefer different modes of instruction, which infer the importance of customized functionalities in a navigation assistant system. We also validate from our study that participants with visual impairments spent less time and made fewer errors while navigating than blindfolded participants with 20/20 vision. We believe that the results from the study will expand the knowledge of user preferences in the type and modality of instructions in the navigation assistive technology domain.