"Pray Before You Step Out": Describing Personal and Situational Blind Navigation Behaviors
Michele A. Williams, Amy Hurst, Shaun K. Kane · 2013 · Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility (ASSETS) · doi:10.1145/2513383.2513449
Summary
This paper presents a formative study exploring how 30 adults with vision impairments use technology and personal strategies to navigate both indoor and outdoor environments. Rather than introducing new navigation technology, the research aims to build a richer understanding of the diverse personal and situational factors that shape blind navigation behavior. Interviews covered Orientation and Mobility (O&M) training experiences, choice of mobility aids (white cane vs. guide dog), technology usage patterns, outdoor and indoor navigation challenges, and social interactions with the public while navigating. Participants were geographically diverse across the United States, spanning urban, suburban, and rural environments, with ages ranging from 23 to 75 and varying onset and severity of vision loss. The study used Grounded Theory analysis to identify themes, ultimately producing a classification framework of navigation attributes organized into two dimensions: Personality attributes (exploration attitude, willingness to ask for help, technology reliance, technology adoption tendencies, and preferred mobility aid) and Scenario attributes (terrain type, location familiarity, weather, crowd density, transportation availability, and GPS availability). The researchers demonstrate the utility of this framework by creating three data-backed navigation personas that illustrate distinct navigation styles.
Key findings
The study revealed significant diversity in navigation behaviors that challenges the notion of people with vision impairments as a homogeneous user group. Cane and guide dog users navigate fundamentally differently — cane users seek out obstacles for environmental information while dog users seek to avoid them, with implications for how navigation technology should present feedback. Most smartphone users maintained 3-4 navigation apps, toggling between them for different contexts (exploring new areas vs. turn-by-turn directions), and seven iPhone owners did not use their phone for navigation at all despite owning one. GPS accuracy was a recurring concern, with errors of 10+ feet reported. Street crossings, construction zones, and overhead obstacles were near-universal outdoor challenges, while indoor navigation remained heavily dependent on sighted guides due to the lack of indoor positioning technology. Safety concerns significantly affected technology use — participants worried about exposing expensive devices in public, with reported incidents of phone theft. Social interactions ranged from welcomed assistance to unwanted attention, with some participants avoiding help due to safety fears (one participant received deliberately false directions from strangers). The three personas — Urban Upgrader, Social Navigator, and Conscientious Owner — illustrated how personality and scenario factors combine to produce very different navigation strategies and technology needs.
Relevance
This research is highly valuable for anyone designing navigation technology for people with vision impairments. Its core contribution — the Personality and Scenario attribute framework — provides a structured way to think about the diversity of blind navigation needs rather than designing for a single "blind user" archetype. The finding that 29.3% of assistive devices are abandoned (citing prior research) underscores why understanding individual differences matters. For accessibility practitioners, the study offers several actionable design implications: navigation tools should complement rather than replace existing mobility aids; devices should provide subtle feedback options (vibration, private audio) for users concerned about public visibility; systems should support varying levels of information density based on user confidence; and indoor navigation remains a critical gap. The persona approach demonstrates a practical method for translating diverse user research into design tools that development teams can actually use.
Tags: visual impairment · blindness · navigation · orientation and mobility · wayfinding · assistive technology · personas · GPS · white cane · guide dog · indoor navigation · user research