Presentation
The Multimodal Exhibition: Tangible Interactions for People With Visual Impairments
SessionPoster Session 2
DescriptionPeople-with-visual-impairments (PVI) face persistent barriers in interacting with the built environment because design continues to prioritise use of sight. This paper presents a human-centered, multi-modal exhibition designed to evaluate six tangible prototypes aimed at enhancing awareness of surroundings, visualization-skills, and tactile vocabulary for PVI and sighted participants. Prototypes ranged from tactile-sketch-boards and audio-enabled-devices to cultural-exploration tools tested in a guided dark-room experience called the Multimodal-Box. Qualitative-interviews and behavioral-observations were used to explore sensory perception, prototype usability and empathy-driven insights. 100 participants including 35 PVI engaged with the experience. Post exhibition experience interviews revealed significant shifts in participants’ spatial-awareness and understanding of non-visual-navigation. Notably, over 90% of PVI found at least two prototypes applicable in daily life - Tactosketchboard and Magic Platform. By evaluating tangible interventions in a near-realistic setting, this research contributes to discourse on inclusive interaction design - encouraging co-designed systems that empower PVI to independently engage with their world through multi-sensory modalities.
Event Type
Poster
TimeWednesday, October 15th5:30pm - 6:30pm CDT
LocationRiverside East