Newly blind persons using virtual environment system in a traditional orientation and mobility rehabilitation program: a case study

Abstract

This paper presents a virtual reality system (the BlindAid) developed for orientation and mobility training of people who are newly blind. The BlindAid allows users to interact with different virtual structures and objects via auditory and haptic feedback. This case study aims to examine if and how the BlindAid, in conjunction with a traditional rehabilitation programme, can help people who are newly blind develop new orientation and mobility methods. Follow-up research based on this study, with a large experiment and control group, could contribute to the area of orientation and mobility rehabilitation training for the newly blind. The case study research focused on A., a woman who is newly blind, for 17 virtual sessions spanning ten weeks, during the 12 weeks of her traditional orientation and mobility rehabilitation programme. The research was implemented by using virtual environment (VE) exploration and orientation tasks in VE and physical spaces. The research methodology used both qualitative and quantitative methods, including interviews, questionnaire, videotape recording, and user computer logs. The results of this study helped elucidate several issues concerning the contribution of the BlindAid system to the exploration strategies and learning processes experienced by the participant in her encounters with familiar and unfamiliar physical surroundings.

Implications for Rehabilitation

• This case study shows that people who are newly blind can use VE simulation as part of their rehabilitation training.

• The ability to undergo training in the VE concurrently with the traditional O & M rehabilitation programme enabled people who are blind to practise O & M methods in the VE simulation and, through this, to increase their sense of control and confidence.

• The VE enabled the people who are newly blind to transfer their exploratory strategies and methods from the real space to the VE and back again to the real space.

• The VE can be used as a preplanning aid to explore unknown spaces in advance before orienting in the real space

Keywords::

• Cognitive map
• haptic devices
• multisensorial environment
• simulation

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the Carroll Center for the Blind, Newton, MA, for collaboration and support during the BlindAid system design and research. We thank our anonymous participant for her time, efforts, and ideas.

Declaration of Interest: This research was partially supported by a grant from The National Institutes of Health - National Eye Institute (Grant No. 5R21EY16601-2), and was partially supported by The European Commission, Marie Curie International Reintegration Grants (Grant No. FP7-PEOPLE-2007-4-3-IRG).