Os parques são espaços de lazer essenciais para convivência e interação na sociedade, sendo locais públicos, que devem oferecer igualdade de possibilidades e utilização por todos, não segregando ou excluindo. Mas, na realidade, os parques públicos urbanos brasileiros ainda não dispõem de condições básicas para o deslocamento seguro e autônomo das pessoas com deficiência visual. Por meio desta pesquisa, objetivou-se identificar as restrições que o ambiente impõe a esse grupo de indivíduos, bem como conhecer suas necessidades, habilidades e limitações, compreendendo a sua percepção do espaço, e identificando a influência dos elementos cognitivos auxiliares dessa percepção. Buscou-se ainda avaliar a eficácia das medidas de acessibilidade implantadas em parques urbanos para as pessoas com deficiência visual, analisando a sua relação com estes espaços livres públicos de lazer. Para tal, realizou-se uma revisão bibliográfica aprofundada acerca do tema, atentando para as normas e legislações vigentes; entrevistas com especialistas de outras áreas do conhecimento, como psicólogos, educadores e especialistas em orientação e mobilidade; e contou-se com a contribuição de pessoas com deficiência visual por meio da aplicação de ferramentas como entrevistas, grupos focais, observações participantes, e passeios acompanhados em alguns parques de São Paulo, para a coleta de dados. O estudo pautou-se por uma abordagem qualitativa de pesquisa, cujos resultados ressaltaram a importância dos parques como espaços de lazer para as pessoas com deficiência visual e a atual falta de acessibilidade dos mesmos. Apesar da legislação brasileira, e em especial da cidade de São Paulo, estabelecer a garantia de acesso e utilização dos parques pelas pessoas com deficiência em geral, essa determinação não é cumprida pelo próprio poder público, responsável pelo gerenciamento e manutenção dos parques uranos. E em relação às normas atuais, esta dissertação sugere alguns acréscimos e recomendações para que os parques realmente possibilitem o deslocamento autônomo e independente das pessoas cegas e com baixa visão. Por fim, com a realização desta pesquisa percebe-se que os ambientes muito abertos, amplos e com muitas pessoas são naturalmente complicados para as pessoas com deficiência visual, mas é possível deixá-los totalmente acessíveis para este público-alvo, e é algo necessário, visto que esta parte da população demonstrou grande interesse e deve ser incluída plenamente nos espaços públicos em questão. / Parks are places for leisure activities, they are essential for society\'s coexistence and interaction, being by definition public sites that should offer equal possibilities and universal use, never segregating or excluding. However, in fact, urban public parks in Brazil still do not dispose of basic requirements for the safe and independent displacement of the visually impaired persons. The present research seeks to identify the restrictions imposed by the environment to this group of individuals, as well as knowing their needs, abilities and limitations, understanding their perception of space and identifying the influence of the cognitive elements that assist this perception. Additionally, the present work intends to evaluate the effectiveness of the accessibility measures implemented in urban parks for the visually impaired individuals, analyzing their relationship with those public free leisure sites. In order to do so, a deep bibliographic review about the theme was done, with special attention to the current rules and legislations; interviews with specialists from other fields of knowledge such as psychologists, teachers and specialist in orientation and mobility. The research has been aided by visually impaired persons whom have participated in several activities for data collection, interviews, focus groups, participant observations, as well as accompanied tours through some parks of Sao Paulo. This study is guided by a qualitative approach research method, which results highlighted the importance of parks as leisure sites for visually impaired individuals and the actual lack of accessibility of those free public sites. Even though the Brazilian legislation and specially the Sao Paulo municipality laws do establish that access and use of the parks by the visually impaired citizens is guaranteed, the public forces do not comply with such determinations, though those forces answer for the management and maintenance of urban parks. In relation to the current laws, this dissertation suggests some additions and recommendations so that parks really enable the independent and self-governing displacement of the blind and of the low vision persons. Conclusively, the present research allow us to perceive that environments that are very open, wide and crowded are naturally challenging for the visually impaired, but it is possible to make those environments completely accessible to this audience, and it is rather necessary, once part of this population showed great interest and should be fully included in the public sites concerned.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T17:05:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Luiz Araujo da Silva.pdf: 2513244 bytes, checksum: 7430a562e7dca99a4734683b1748cdfd (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-02 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Currently multiple devices provide means of conveying information to the visually impaired through audio. However, if the interpretation of texts this resolved, there are few systems for interpretation and generation of graphics or symbols really functional. This paper presents a platform developed to generate and scan images on the computer and can be used by people with visual impairments. The device comprises hardware, a printed circuit board having an electrode array. Each electrode corresponds to a pixel, in analogy to the points on a display. In addition to the hardware, two programs were developed first, installed on computer analyzes and generates the image, the other is recorded in microcontroller and controls the electrode plate for pixel scan the pixel. When an object is positioned conductive based on the platform, the system checks which electrodes are with the closed contact and records these design points. This information is processed by dedicated software installed on your computer, which analyzes the information received, generates the design and the play on the computer screen. The device has been tested with applications of geometric shapes used in math classes and geometric shapes to build a flowchart. The device is a proposal for assistive technology tool that can help generate images of objects, flowcharts and diagrams in a simple and accessible way to people with low vision, facilitating the understanding and generate a wealth of detail in the information presented / Atualmente vários dispositivos disponibilizam meios de transmitir informação para pessoas com deficiência visual através de áudio. Porém, se a interpretação de textos esta resolvida, poucos são os sistemas para interpretação e geração de gráficos ou símbolos realmente funcionais. Este trabalho apresenta uma plataforma desenvolvida para gerar e digitalizar imagens no computador, podendo ser utilizada por pessoas com deficiência visual. O dispositivo é constituído por um hardware, uma placa de circuito impresso contendo uma matriz de eletrodos. Cada eletrodo corresponde a um pixel, em analogia aos pontos em um display. Além do hardware, foram desenvolvidos dois programas o primeiro, instalado no computador analisa e gera a imagen, o outro é gravado no microcontrolador e comanda a placa de eletrodos para varredura de pixel a pixel. Quando é posicionado um objeto com base condutora na plataforma, o sistema verifica quais eletrodos estão com o contato fechado e registra esses pontos desenho. Essa informação é processada por um software dedicado instalado no computador, que analisa a informação recebida, gera o desenho e o reproduza na tela do computador. O dispositivo foi testado com aplicações de formas geométricas utilizadas nas aulas de matemática e com formas geométricas para construção de um fluxograma. O dispositivo é uma proposta de ferramenta de tecnologia assistiva que poderá auxiliar a gerar imagens de objetos, fluxogramas e diagramas de uma forma simples e acessível a pessoas com baixa visão, facilitando o entendimento além de gerar riqueza de detalhes na informação apresentada

abstract: With 285-million blind and visually impaired worldwide, and 25.5 million in the United States, federally funded universities should be at the forefront when designing accessible websites for the blind community. Fifty percent of the university homepages discussed in my thesis failed accessibility checker tests because alternative text was not provided in the alt-attribute for numerous images, making them inaccessible to blind users. The images which failed included logos, photographs of people, and images with text. Understanding image content and context in relation to the webpage is important for writing alternative text that is useful, yet writers interpret and define the content and context of images differently or not at all. Not all universities follow legal guidelines of using alternative text for online images nor implements best practices of analyzing images prior to describing them within the context of the webpage. When an image used in a webpage is designed only to be seen by sighted users and not to be seen by screen reader software, then that image is not comparably accessible to a blind user, as Section 508 mandates. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Technical Communication 2018

The long white cane offers many benefits for the blind and visually impaired. Still, many report being injured both indoors and outdoors while using the long white cane. One frequent cause of injury is due to the fact that the long white cane cannot detect obstacles above the waist of the user. This thesis presents a system that attempts to augment the capabilities of the long white cane by sensing the environment around the user, creating a map of obstacles within the environment, and providing simple haptic feedback to the user. The proposed augmented cane system uses the Asus Xtion Pro Live infrared depth sensor to capture the user's environment as a point cloud. The open-source Point Cloud Library (PCL) and Robotic Operating System (ROS) are used to process the point cloud. The points representing the ground plane are extracted to more clearly define potential obstacles. The system determines the nearest point for each 1degree across the horizontal view. These nearest points are recorded as a ROS Laser Scan message and used in a simple haptic feedback system where the rumble feedback is based on two different cost functions. Twenty-two volunteers participated in a user demonstration that showed the augmented cane system can successfully communicate the presence of obstacles to blindfolded users. The users reported experiencing a sense of safety and confidence in the system's abilities. Obstacles above waist height are detected and communicated to the user. The system requires additional development before it could be considered a viable product for the visually impaired.

In the 1960s, a group of blind activists, led by a charismatic young blind leader, attempted to take control of a residential school for the blind in Vinton, Iowa. The group of activists belonged to the Iowa Association of the Blind, the state affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB); the leader was Kenneth Jernigan, the first blind director of the Iowa Commission for the Blind; and the school was the Iowa Braille and Sight-Saving School (IBSSS), a venerable institution founded in the mid nineteenth century, and a cornerstone and iconic institution in the small northeast Iowa farming community of Vinton. Through the decade of the 1960s, Iowa was the central front of a civil rights movement, led by blind people determined to implement a new philosophy of blindness against what they perceived to be the entrenched power of sighted rehabilitation and education professionals. For ten years the Iowa Commission for the Blind and the Braille School were at odds with each other as both institutions fought for the hearts and minds of blind adults and children. Constant friction marked relations between the director of the Commission and the superintendent of the school, the former a blind activist administrator, the latter a sighted professional educator of the blind. The former, along with the organized blind whom he led, were not willing to let professionals speak for them, but insisted on speaking for themselves. The blind came to see the Braille School as the biggest obstacle to achieving their goals of advancing the civil rights of the blind in Iowa and beyond. The solution was to seek to take control of the school from the University Board of Regents and put it under the authority of the Commission for the Blind. The effort nearly succeeded, but the cost grew too high, and the battle for the Braille School would mark the beginning of the end of Jernigan's time in Iowa and set back the blind movement in ways not recognized until much later. Blind citizens in the 1940s and 50s faced widespread and entrenched discrimination. The ability to work, to own one's home, to travel independently on public transportation, to serve on trial juries, to vote, to adopt children, to raise families, were rights that no law guaranteed. The Architectual Barriers Act, Rehabilitation Act, Education of All Handicapped Children Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act were all still decades in the future. It was the hope of Kenneth Jernigan and the blind whom he led to use the vocational rehabilitation program for the blind in Iowa to secure some of the rights the blind lacked, and to advance a new vision of what it meant to be blind.

This project describes the processes and procedures used in planning and writing a braille music program specifically to assist teachers of visually impaired students instruct their students in basic braille music notation. The experiment was conducted over two terms of the school year with an Itinerant Teacher and her 9 year old braille student. The program was based on a direct instruction model, and material included a Teachers Manual (in print and braille), plus examples and exercises recorded on tape. The recordings emphasised and developed aural skills in pitch and rhythm, ensuring that the subject matter was learned musically. The experiment was a single-case study (A-B-A design) using pre-tests, probes and post tests. The final post test was administered six weeks after the completion of the program. / Master of Education

<p>Mobiltelefoni är ett ständigt ämne då det hela tiden sker utvecklingar. Dock finns det en gruppsom inte har lika stort deltagande i detta område som andra. Dessa personer är synskadade på olika nivåer. Vi har i denna uppsats studerat hård- och mjukvaror för synskadade inom mobiltelefoni ur en användares perspektiv. Vi har ställt frågan:</p><p><p><em>”Vilka särskilda behov gällande mobiltelefoni har synskadade användare och hur kan dessa omsättas i hårdvara och mjukvara?”</em></p><p>Vi har genom telefonintervjuer identifierat åtta användares behov av hård- och mjukvara för synskadade för att kunna ge förslag på en anpassad hårdvara samt en förbättring av en mjukvara. Vi har vidare utvärderat dessa behov i en workshop med synskadade användare för att få ett slutgiltigt förslag på hård- och mjukvara som är tillgänglig och användbar för synskadade personer. Vi har funnit att de viktigaste attributen i hård- och mjukvara är en tydlig logik i uppbyggnaden samt funktionalitet och enkelhet.</p></p>

<p>The focus of this paper is the right of the visually impaired to access tertiary education that is not unfairly discriminative and unequal. The study is intended to highlight the inadequacy in the current legislation on equality such as the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act 4 of 2000 and the Higher Education Act 101 of 1997 in properly promoting the ideals and purpose of constitution. Furthermore to analyse the constitutional court's approach to equality and non discrimination in order to provide solutions and recommendations for changes to existing legislation that is indeed to be effective.It also aim to define what it means to have equality for the visually impaired, more especially in tertiary education through the constitutional court's definition of equality...</p>

Spatial information presented visually is not easily accessible to visually impairedusers. Current technologies, such as screen readers, cannot intuitively conveyspatial layout or structure. This lack of overview is an obstacle for a visuallyimpaired user, both when using the computer individually and when collaboratingwith other users. With the development of haptic and audio technologies, it ispossible to let visually impaired users access to three-dimensional (3D) VirtualReality (VR) environments through the senses of touch and hearing.The work presented in this thesis comprises investigations of haptic and audiointeraction for visually impaired computer users in two stages.The first stage of my research focused on collaborations between sighted andblind-folded computer users in a shared virtual environment. One aspect Iconsidered is how different modalities affect one’s awareness of the other’sactions, as well as of one’s own actions, during the work process. The secondaspect I investigated is common ground, i.e. how visually impaired people obtaina common understanding of the elements of their workspace through differentmodalities. A third aspect I looked at was how different modalities affectperceived social presence, i.e. their ability to perceive the other person’sintentions and emotions. Finally, I attempted to understand how human behaviorand efficiency in task performance are affected when different modalities are usedin collaborative situations.The second stage of my research focused on how the visually impaired access3D multimodal virtual environment individually. I conducted two studies basedon two different haptic and audio prototypes concerning understanding the effectof haptic-audio modalities on navigation and interface design. One prototype thatI created was a haptic and audio game, a labyrinth. The other is a virtualsimulation environment based on the real world of Kulturhuset in Stockholm. Oneaspect I investigated in this individual interaction is how it is possible for users toaccess the spatial layout through a multimodal virtual environment. The secondaspect I investigated is usability; how the haptic and audio cues help visuallyimpaired people understand the spatial layout. The third aspect concernsnavigation and cognitive mapping in a multimodal virtual environment.This thesis contributes to the field of human-computer interaction for thevisually impaired with a set of studies of multimodal interactive systems, andbrings new perspectives to the enhancement of understanding real environmentsfor visually impaired users through a haptic and audio virtual computerenvironment. / QC20100701

While credibility perception on the Web is a well-researched topic across multiple disciplines, extant studies have not considered nonvisual modalities of Web access. This research explores how Web users who are blind or visually impaired perceive the credibility of online information and how the screen reader used by them to interact with the Web mediates the process. Credibility perception was studied in the context of the screen reader users’ everyday information practices, examining in depth the effect of Web accessibility on their online information interactions, information practices and credibility perception. Adopting an exploratory approach, a sequential multimethods research design was used. Between April and July 2008 data were collected from adult screen reader users residing in Ontario, Canada through an electronic questionnaire survey (N=60) to identify salient issues, which were then examined deeper through semi-structured interviews with a subsample (N=13) during June 2009. Hands-on online information activities (with participant observation and think-aloud protocol) were also conducted during the interview session. Primary findings emerged through qualitative content analysis of descriptive data, with quantitative results guiding and supplementing the analysis. Online information credibility perception is found to be a dynamic and social process. It is governed by users’ assumptions based on their past experiences, personal knowledge/beliefs and social inputs. Assumptions evolve over time and usage into personal heuristics. The credibility perception process spans three phases—prediction, evaluation and corroboration—permeating the information seeking, using and sharing practices of users. Evaluation of website and web content depends on users’ online interaction proficiency and is bounded by the interface affordances provided by the screen reader and the amount of meta-information provided by the websites for interpreting visual/spatial features. Community support scaffolds users towards more effective technology management and credibility perception. Therefore, promoting inclusion in the online participatory culture will enhance the information practices of screen reader users.