[accessibleimage] Re: maps for the blind

Hi Simon,
I don't know of any investigations into curve detection in the blind; all my work thus far in vision-neutral haptics has used straight lines; however, I think I've come up with an interesting hypothesis for why this might occur, which also might offer some new lines of investigation for you.
I did some earlier work investigating the JND threshold for kinesthetic distance, which we found to be around 0.21mm. Given that curve detection would make use of the proprioceptive senses, i.e. kinesthetics and balance, I'm wondering whether gentle curves tend to fall below JND thresholds for proprioception. If people are misjudging curves, as opposed to not identifying them altogether, then it could be a memory issue where the aggregate data is overflowing the bounds of available memory. 

Will
----- Original Message ----- From: <S.Ungar@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, January 09, 2007 2:52 PM
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: maps for the blind


Dear All,

This discussion on detection of curves in the route is particularly
fascinating for me, as we have recently discussed this issue quite
extensively within the TIMP project. We made certain assumptions along
the lines of Rachel Magario's ideas, but were unable to find any
published literature to confirm or disconfirm this. We generally went on
anecdotal evidence from some of our participants who often reported not
being able to detect gentle curves in a route, and some related work on
haptic perception of curves.

I am now even more surprised that there doesn't seem to be any research
on this. I spent a few hours trying searches using various keywords, and
came up with some work on sighted perception of curves, but nothing
about this without vision.

Does anybody know of any published research on this that I may have
missed?

All the best,

Simon


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SIMON UNGAR
Department of Psychology
University of Surrey
Guildford
Surrey GU2 7XH
U.K.

Tel: +44 (0) 1483 68 6895
Fax: +44 (0) 1483 68 6906

e-mail: s.ungar@xxxxxxxxxxxx

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

-----Original Message-----
From: accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:accessibleimage-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Karen Gourgey
Sent: 29 December 2006 17:03
To: accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: maps for the blind

Hi Lori and All,

I too am a totally blind pedestrian, who has traveled both with cane and
dog.  I am blind from birth, and I have some asymmetrical hearing loss.
I can usually detect curves in a path, and I certainly think that
tactile maps depicting  routes should reflect the basic outline of the
route, including curves.  When we did our maps in the '90's of the New
York city Subway system, we produced one set of maps that were
overviews, i.e. they showed the ways in which the various subway lines
wove through the city and at times intersected with each other.  We also
produced strip maps for each individual subway line.  Here the goal was
to show and give information about all stops along a particular line.
The concept was similar to that used by Joe Wiedel when he did maps of
the Washington D.C. subway system.
The strip maps are event maps, where we elected to leave out the shape
of the route, and concentrate on basic information regarding stops, and
characteristics of each station, such as whether one was leaving the
train on to a platform with tracks on one or both sides.  I think the
map maker and map user need to decide collaboratively what are the
information essentials to be communicated in any given situation.
Personally, I appreciate any uncluttered, simple map that gives me  the
basic shape of a route.  Once I have that, I can fill in my "points of
interest" and they become details of the cognitive map that lives in my
head.

Thanks for listening.

Best,

Karen


Karen Luxton Gourgey Ed.D
Director, Computer Center for Visually Impaired People Baruch College,
City University of New York
1 Bernard Baruch Way box H-0648
New York, NY 10010
Phone: (646) 312-1426
Fax: (646) 312-1421
http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/ccvip
----- Original Message -----
From: "Kaizen Program" <kaizen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, December 29, 2006 6:49 AM
Subject: [accessibleimage] Re: maps for the blind



Hi Lori,

You are not alone.

I am now totally blind, although I had vision for the first 39 years

of my

life, gradually decreasing from full vision to very little before

losing

all. I travel with a cane. I can definitely detect changes in the
direction
of paths most of the time. During the past few years I have

experienced

some hearing loss, a little more in the right ear than in the left

ear,

which interferes with my sense of direction, but doesn't stop me from
noticing changes in direction of a path. It  just interferes with my
figuring
out where sounds are coming from. I, like you, find it  helpful to

have

maps
that depict whether or not the path is straight or  angles. I also
generally
appreciate knowing the basic layout of a route  so I can figure out

where

I
am
going more easily, even though I can be overwhelmed by cluttered

tactile

maps, especially if they are not clearly labeled, or require moving

too

much
from the map to a key to figure out the labeling code.

I am not sure if valuing tactile maps of routes is something that is

more

important
for people who have previously had vision than  for those who never

saw. I

also don't know if blind people who have learned to use maps to gain

an

idea
of
the overall layout of places find this relevant while those who aren't



used
to using tactile maps find it less helpful.

I just finished reading the book, Touching for Knowing: Cognitive
psychology
of haptic manual perception
Edited by
Yvette Hatwell
Universite Pierre Mendes-France, Grenoble
Arlette Streri
Edouard Gentaz
Universite Rene Descartes and Centre National de 7a Recherche

Scientifique

John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam/ Philadelphia
Translated (and updated) from: Y. Hatwell, A. Streri and E. Gentaz

(2000).

Toucher pour connaitre. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.
Toucher pour connaitre. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

It is a very interesting book.

One article in particular deals with tactile maps: The tactile reading

of

maps and drawings, and the access of blind people to works of art by
Yvette
Hatwell and Francoise Martinez-Sarrochi. They seem to say that people

with

some vision and those with some previous vision might benefit most

from

tactile maps.

I think it can be a complex question because blind people often differ
greatly in past experiences, past sensory capacities, current sensory
capacities, including specifics of vision limitations, hearing
limitations,
and tactal capacities, as well as age of onset of blindness (very

young,

middle-life or older), etc. and kind and amount of developed skills.

I don't think that laboratory tests can necessarily deal with all of

these

complexities fully or adequately because they can be so interrelated.

Personally, I really hope we will have more and more good tactile maps

of

local areas as time goes on.

Have a happy new year.

Sylvie
----- Original Message ----- From: "Lori" <twilight2@xxxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <accessibleimage@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 6:40 PM
Subject: [accessibleimage] maps for the blind


Hi all,

My apologies if this has already been discussed here or if it isn't
apropriate for the list, but after reading the messages about

production

of
maps and someone mentioning in an article that they can't distinguish

a

curve, etc, I thought I should post.

I'm just curious. I'm a totally blind pedestrian who has traveled both



with
cane and dog guide. I would say a good percentage of the time I am

aware

of
any alteration in direction of travel or even subtle changes. I find

it

helpful to have maps that depict whether or not the path is straight

or

angles. I'm not alone, am I?

Lori

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