Purpose People with visual impairments may have difficulty in identifying information, either on a bottle or package of medicine. As a result, many of them need the help of a third party to discern which medication they should take. In this perspective, this study aims to assist people with visual impairments to identify their medicine by using mobile sensing technologies. Design/methodology/approach The authors have developed three versions of a mobile application. They use three technologies, namely, near field communication, QR code and magnetic field, for drug identification. The entire development process was based on user-centered design. And, the authors also performed an initial usability assessment of these applications with ten users who were blind. Findings Preliminary results show user preference for the near field communication approach and reinforce some known drawbacks concerning the use of QR code by people with visual impairments. Research limitations/implications Although the authors have evaluated these technologies with few mobile devices, they perceived that the acquired values of the magnetic field suffered distortions culminating, in some cases, in a non-identification of the medicine, or even in incorrect identification. Practical implications Current mobile device magnet sensors are not yet robust to be used for medicine identification. Social implications Mobile apps combined with medicine identification can contribute to the autonomy of people who are blind. Originality/value The main contribution of this paper is to integrate and analyze distinct mobile-based sensing technologies for identifying medicines by people with visual impairments.

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This paper presents the design and initial evaluation of a Braille virtual keyboard which allows text input on touchscreen devices such as smartphones and tablets. The virtual keyboard, called LêBraille, is a metaphor of the Braille writing system that uses audio and vibration feedbacks to promote accessibility for people with visual disabilities. We integrated this keyboard into two mobile applications and implemented an initial usability evaluation with nine people with visual disabilities. The evaluation comprised activities including a comparison of text input in three types of keyboards (physical keyboard, alpha numeric virtual keyboard, and LêBraille). Initial results indicates that writing activities can be as fast as a virtual keyboard depending on the Braille expertise of the user and the degree of blindness, however, the writing pace with a virtual keyboard is lower than the writing pace with a physical keyboard.

BACKGROUND: Knowing their current position in the surroundings constitutes one of the biggest challenges faced by people with visual disabilities when they move around. For them, it is difficult to be aware of the direction in which they are going, and the location of nearby objects and obstacles. In this context, obtaining relevant spatial information is always very significant to these individuals. Hence, the research in the development of assistive technologies for needs and perspectives of people who are blind has been a promising area in terms of the orientation and mobility (O&M) challenges. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study is to systematically examine the literature on &M virtual environments designed to support indoor navigation to identify techniques for both developing and evaluating the usability and cognitive impact of these applications. METHODS: A systematic literature review (SLR) was performed, considering population, intervention, outcomes, and study design as eligibility criteria. After a filtering process from 987 works retrieved from six databases, we extracted data from 51 papers, which meet the study selection criteria. RESULTS: The analysis of the 51 papers describing 31 O&M indoor virtual environments, indicated that O&M virtual environments to support indoor navigation are usually designed for desktop, adopt spatial audio as way to support orientation, and use joystick as primary interaction device. Regarding evaluation techniques, questionnaires, interviews, user observation, and performance logs are commonly used to evaluate usability in this context. In tests involving users, the participants are usually adults aged 21–59 years, who individually spend about 90 minutes split in usually two evaluation sessions. Most papers do not report any strategies to evaluate the cognitive impact of O&M virtual environments on users’ navigational and wayfinding skills. Thirteen papers (25.49%) reported the conduction of experiments or quasi-experiments and demonstrated pieces of evidence associated with a positive cognitive impact resultant from O&M indoor virtual environments usage. Finally, only four papers (7.84%) reported the development of indoor maps editors for O&M virtual environments. CONCLUSION: Our SLR summarizes the characteristics of 32 O&M virtual environments. It compiles state-of-the-art for indoor simulations in this domain and highlights their challenges and impacts in O&M training. Also, the absence of clear guidelines to design and evaluate O&M virtual environments and the few available computer editors of indoor maps appear as research opportunities.

Com a crescente inserção das tecnologias de informação e comunicação (TIC’s) no contexto da sala de aula e, principalmente, no atendimento educacional especializado às pessoas com deficiência visual, percebe-se que para o ensino do Braille ainda são utilizados recursos bem tradicionais, como a reglete. Neste artigo é apresentada uma proposta de inovação, o aplicativo LêBraille, que simula os instrumentos utilizados para o aprendizado em Braille, integrando o processo de aquisição do conhecimento e o mundo digital. Esse sistema possui uma utilização semelhante à reglete, porém o papel utilizado na escrita Braille será substituído por uma tela sensível ao toque, os pontos da célula Braille serão elementos desta tela e a punção corresponderá à pressão exercida pelo dedo do utilizador na tela do dispositivo portátil. Ao capturar as informações puncionadas, ocorrerão manipulações no sistema para reprodução de um retorno perceptível ao usuário, seja por meio de uma saída sonora e/ou tátil.