Geography and the disabled: a survey with special reference to vision impaired and blind populations

“However, as the recent debate between geographers who research disability issues (see Golledge, 1993, 1996; Butler, 1994; Gleeson, 1996; Imrie 1996), and the views of interviewees in this study (see Claire’ s, Patrick’ s and Michael’ s statements above concerning `elitist cliques’ and not being…”

“Large scale deployment of indoor navigation systems lead to greater independence of users with visual impairments and could significantly improve their quality of life [21].”

“Two of the biggest challenges to independence for blind individuals are difficulties in accessing printed material [1] and the stressors associated with safe and efficient navigation [2].”

“Golledge (1993) discusses the idea that even when considering the exact same geographic space, people with differing abilities must use, access, and travel through that environment using different routes, such that the conception and use of that space is “transformed” for different users.”

“Blind individuals are faced with the challenge of finding their way through built environments that can be difficult to interpret, disorienting, and even intimidating.(1,2) Research on visual impairment and blindness has approached this challenge by attempting to gain an understanding of the cognitive processes underl…”

“To understand the worlds of disabled people could offer considerable benefits to the discipline of geography and other social sciences as well as to disabled people themselves (Golledge, 1993).”

“Blind and vision-impaired individuals are also known to encounter problems when unfamiliar environments mean they depart from known routes, resulting in disorientation, panic and fear (Golledge, 1993, p. 69).”

“However, much of this research was highly descriptive of its subject matter, and tended to treat disability as a matter to be solved by recourse to technical solutions or outcomes (see, for example, Golledge 1991, 1993).”

“Studies show small differences in path integration ability between sighted and individuals with visual impairments [27], but cognitive mapping is significantly slower for people with visual impairments [25, 35] often leading to reduced mobility [12].”

“The dearth of tactile maps has far-reaching implications, well beyond the orientation and mobility domain (Golledge, 1993).”

“Imrie (2000) describes three main approaches: behaviouralism (see, for example, Golledge, 1993); socio-political (see, for example, Gleeson 1996, 1999; Imrie, 1996); and sociobiological (see, for example, Butler and Bowlby, 1997).”

“In spite of increasing attempts in geography to include marginalized voices such as those of women and ethnic minority groups, there is still a large group of `invisible', unheard people in `society': namely, the disabled (see Golledge, 1993).”

“…spatial understanding because they have never experienced the perceptual processes (vision) necessary to comprehend complex spatial arrangements (Golledge, 1993); 2)the inefficiency theory, which states that persons with visual impairment can understand and mentally manipulate spatial…”

“The ability to travel independently and to interact with the wider world is therefore one of the greatest challenges facing blind people (Golledge, 1993).”

“Indeed these physical constraints might themselves generate a series of affective responses, similar to those explored in the disability literature that revolve around frustration (see Golledge 1993; Imrie 2000); a frustration that might, in turn, engender resentment.”

“This additional cognitive effort inevitably contributes to the increased stress of travel and decreased independence experienced by a large percentage of BVI people (Clark-Carter, Heyes, and Howarth 1986; Golledge 1993).”

“…are unable to develop a general spatial understanding because they have never experienced the perceptual processes (e.g., vision) necessary to comprehend two and three-dimensional arrangements, scale changes and more complex concepts such as hierarchy, pattern and continuity (see Golledge, 1993a).”

“Golledge (1993) notes a number of commonalities in the learning of small-scale and large-scale spaces, such as hierarchical organisation and clustering.”

“Marston and Golledge (1998b) and Marston et al. (1997) suggested that the dismal 70% unemployment rate of persons with legal blindness (Kirchner, Schmeidler, & Todorov, 1999) is due, in part, to difficulties of traveling independently.”

“The mobility needs of people with disabilities are often neglected in the planning and design of transport systems (Golledge 1993; Imrie and Kumar 1998; Imrie 2000).”

“Rather than treating the cognitive maps of their participants as distortions of reality (Golledge, 1993), the maps were considered to be versions of reality reflecting a pressing need for environmental modification.”

“Geographers have also made significant contributions to the study of navigation and spatial orientation for the visually impaired (Golledge 1993; Kichin et al. 1997).”

“Nevertheless, persons with visual impairment are significantly limited in their abilities to travel alone and unaided (Golledge, 1993).”

“While Golledge (1993) made the point that disabled people occupy ‘transformed’ and ‘distorted’ spaces, Gleeson (1996) criticised his positivistic appreciation of space, and the creation of ‘worlds of disability’ from the materialist (Marxist) position.”

“These experiments have tended to confirm the view that blind people have the same cognitive spatial abilities as sighted people, but that their configurational knowledge is less complex owing to differing access to information and past experiences (Golledge, 1993).”

“knowledge (Golledge, et al., 1985; Montello, Hegarty, Richardson, & Waller, 2004; Siegel & White, 1975). According to Siegel and Whites’s influential approach (1975), the microgenesis of spatial knowledge consists of a progression through three stages, with landmark knowledge being a prerequisite for route knowledge,…”

“…mobility has emerged from two strands of thought, with a large contribution from the medical or behavioural perspective of Golledge, Kitchin, Marston, Jacobson and others (Golledge, 1993; Kitchin et al., 1997; Kitchen et al., 1998; Marston et al., 1997; for a detailed review see Park et al., 1998.)”

“…those with early-onset and total blindness, exhibit a range of spatial deficits on spatial learning and wayfinding behaviors as compared to their sighted peers (for reviews, see Golledge, 1993; Millar, 1994; Thinus-Blanc and Gaunet, 1997; Ungar, 2000; Long and Giudice, 2010; Schinazi et al., 2016).”

“Mobility challenges and independent travel are major concerns for blind and visually impaired pedestrians [1][2].”

“The ability to make informed spatial decisions affects people’s quality of life to a great extent (Golledge, 1993).”

“Writing in relation to the built environment, Golledge sees these provisions as simply ‘efforts to compensate for disability’ [71], rather than the pursuit of an approach based upon equality.”

“to calculate itineraries, to take decisions and avoid obstacles [3].”

“This causes anxiety, em-barrassment and makes them reluctant to go alone in an unfamiliar building [15].”

“Further, for people with disabilities, transportation has been recognized as an important conduit to increased community participation and, subsequently, inclusion [19, 28, 49].”

“The feedback from the participants was very positive, with respondents clearly able to use the system to find out about and explore places and services, and to find out the names and layout of roads (Gill 1996).”

“These include the positivistic and medicalised approaches of Golledge (1993) and Park et al. (1998); and their critics, who called for more attention to the social model of disability within geographical research (Butler, 1998; Gleeson, 1996).”

“Disabled people have distinctive sensory experiences of movement as some impairments may involve partial or total absence of hearing, sight, feeling and movement of body limbs (see Golledge, 1993; Allen, 2004).”

“Research in cognitive science has found that the ability to explore and to play an active role in navigation is crucial for one’s spatial learning [19, 21], cognitive development and brain health [25, 62, 71], sense of independence [23, 41, 44], and agency in making wayfinding decisions [20, 22].”

“perception of these surroundings by a person with limited or no sight is remarkably different to our own (Golledge 1993; Arditi, Holtzman, and Kosslyn 1988).”

“…Graphics and Interaction, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic balatjan@fel.cvut.cz, xmikovec@fel.cvut.cz ABSTRACT Even though the photography is a visual medium, visually impaired people use their smartphone cameras to take photos.”

“Even when they are available, several challenges emerge [31, 43].”

“We applied the maximum-contrast method in our study as a basis for exploring and ensuring optimal tactile acuity, which provides a smaller range of spatial acuity than the visual field (Golledge, 1993).”

“Golledge (1993) also noticed that, for individuals with intellectual disabilities, opportunities to travel independently are limited, few in number, and are often controlled by supervisors.”

“Visual impairment limits mainly person's mobility and reduces travel-related activities [1].”

“…the sophisti- cated literatures of everything-is-sociallyconstructed wound up telling ‘Golledge that he ought to experience blindness himself before writing about it’ (Gould, 1999, p. 143; see Golledge, 1993, the commentaries by Imbrie, 1996 and Gleeson, 1996, and the response by Golledge, 1996).”

“One of the most significant handicaps that is caused by visual impairment (that is, blindness or low vision) is the inability to move and travel independently in the spatial environment (Golledge, 1993).”

“While individuals with visual impairments face challenges in mobility while traveling, they seem to choose known routes to avoid disorientation, which in turn leads to frustration, stress, and fear (Golledge, 1993; Hill, Rieser, Hill, & Hill, 1993).”

“This places the disabled in a disadvantaged position, requiring special attention from society (Golledge, 1993; Hahn, 1986).”

“The authors gratefully ac­ tal prerequisite to maintaining a satisfac­ tory quality of life both for sighted and visually impaired individuals (Golledge, 1993).”

“From a positivist/behaviouralist perspective, Golledge has examined the practical problems of disabled people and particularly those with visual impairments in negotiating the built environment (Golledge, 1993; Golledge et al., 1996; Golledge & Stimson, 1997).”

“The quality of life highly depends on the ability to move, to calculate itineraries, to take decisions and avoid obstacles [3].”

“Consequently, researchers such as Golledge (1993) have argued that the inability to travel independently and to interact with the wider Irish Geography.”

“Rice, Jacobson, Golledge, and Jones (2005) developed a map combing auditory cues with haptic feedback, while the user could scan the map using a force-feedback mouse.”

“In addition, words used to describe spatial configurations (such as ‘near’, ‘around’ or ‘the red building’) may be ambiguous or inappropriate for use when describing environments to blind or partially sighted individuals (Golledge, 1993).”

“Aids enabling visually impaired people (VI) to improve their spatial orientation and navigation are of high importance, as visual impairment mainly limits a person’s mobility and reduces travel-related activities [16].”

“Visual impairment limits mainly a person’s mobility and reduces travel-related activities [16].”