Urban mobility
and autonomy for the blind
and partially sighted

Mobility in the city for blind or partially sighted people
New technologies to help people with visual disabilities to move freely:Issues, innovations and prospects
Programme d’actions de l’IVM
- Networks - stations - sites
Ongoing development of a prototype guide to the Paris Ile de France transport networks
- HOMERE
A survey on blind access to tourism and transport websites
Download surveys and research

Mobility in the city for blind or partially sighted people – from intention to action

Public presentation of the tactile relief models and the touch and sound atlas.

IVM puts public transport into relief and large print After a design and production process lasting 2 years, on September 15, 2005 IVM presented the touch and sound atlas of the Ile-de-France Region’s public transport networks and tactile relief models installed in the Porte de Pantin, Porte de la Villette and Basilique de Saint-Denis metro stations. Present were Philippe Martin, Deputy Managing Director of the Ratp, Serge Mery, Deputy Chairman of the Ile-de-France Regional Council, and Jean-Martin Folz, Chairman and CEO of PSA Peugeot-Citroën. Both projects are a world first, exceptional in their scope (hundreds of lines, thousands of stations), original in their conception (relief and large print). These prototypes were designed by a team assembled and headed by IVM together with the Ratp, and financed by the Île-de-France Region and IVM. Production was carried out by IRAG, Institut pour la recherche d’application gravée (Institute for research into the application of engraving).

TOUCH AND SOUND A-Z OF THE ÎLE-DE-FRANCE PUBLIC TRANSPORT NETWORKS
Download a description of the A-Z

The completed prototypes are:
• The A-Z: touch and sound relief maps of the public transport networks. They include relief and large-print maps of all the region’s metro, railway and tram lines, the main Paris bus lines, and bus services to the forty regional centres around Paris. They come with recorded information (on CD) which describes the routes and provides tourist information on the areas around the main stations.
• Touch-based orientation models: these are relief models of the districts around the Porte de Pantin, Porte de la Villette (Cité des Sciences) and Saint-Denis Basilique metro stations.

Systems for planning routes, imaging an area, and accessing the main tourist and cultural attractions.
At present, blind and partially sighted people are not only at a disadvantage when it comes to getting around but also in the essential stage of planning their journeys. These systems have been devised to make this route planning stage easier and to help people visualise the areas they are intending to visit.
The ideas were presented to and approved by specialists in vision impairment and in the voluntary sector (mobility trainers, teachers at the young blind people’s institute…). Research was done into the way people visualise maps and transport networks, plan their routes and on the most effective ways to help in these processes.

IVM supports a generic right to mobility and is developing a program of events to foster autonomous mobility for blind and partially sighted people.
• Because day-to-day life increasingly demands the ability to move around, the right to mobility has become a “generic” right which underpins other basic rights, such as housing, employment, education and culture, leisure, health…
• That is why, since its creation five years ago, IVM has launched an array of projects to help blind and partially sighted people move autonomously around the city. Apart from the two projects described here, IVM has also organized two international seminars on the use of the new ICT technologies to help blind people enhance their mobility, research to evaluate and improve blind access to websites (the main transport websites, the Île-de-France tourist website, Pariscope), a prototype virtual (haptic) stick to enable blind people to explore 3-D images of urban sites.

Funding from the Île-de-France Region and regional transport federation (STIF) and a multidisciplinary team
Development of the prototypes was financed by the Île-de-France Region and IVM: the steering committee is headed by an IVM project manager and the production team comprises experts from the RATP (regional transport network), Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, the Institut national des jeunes aveugles (national young blind people’s institute), IRAG (research institute for engraved applications). Specialists from the Île-de-France transport federation and the French national railway company, independent experts from France and abroad, were consulted and contributed to the steering committee.
The second phase – publication, distribution and evaluation of the A-Z – will be financed by STIF (Île-de-France transport federation) and the Region, will be implemented by the Paris regional transport company and coordinated by IVM. It will be supported by a network of partners (municipalities, various associations, transport firms) who will help to publicise and deploy the new tool.
The impact of the three orientation models to be installed in the metro stations in September 2005 will be assessed with a view to extending them to other stations.

Partners
Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie, the municipalities of Paris and Saint-Denis, the Île-de-France tourism committee, the Saint-Denis departmental tourism committee, Monum (Basilique Saint-Denis), the Scientific and Technical Centre for Construction, University Paris 5 (Department of computer ergonomics), the AEC (Atomic Energy Commission), PSA Peugeot-Citroën, SNCF and RATP (national and regional railway companies). In addition, a number of associations for blind and partially sighted people, including APAM (Association for the Blind and partially sighted) and INJA (national young blind people’s institute) were involved in IVM’s activities.

Project leader:
François Ascher, Professor at the French Institute of Town Planning, University Paris 8, Chairman of the IVM scientific and steering committee

Project manager:
Anne Dupont, architect
To find out more about the design and production teams

IVM programme of actions

The increasing complexity of urban life makes modern cities even more dangerous and difficult to negotiate for blind and partially sighted people.
How can they be helped to acquire the essential information for getting round the urban maze? How can their safety be improved? How can they obtain access to all the resources the modern city offers?

The Institut pour la ville en mouvement (City on the Move) has undertaken three practical projects following an initial programmes of surveys and discussions.

- Networks - stations - sites
Ongoing development of a prototype guide to the Paris Ile de France transport networks

In partnership with the Ile-de-France region and the RATP rail network, IVM is designing and developing a prototype relief guide to the Ile-de-France transport networks and a prototype relief map for installation in the Porte de la Villette, Porte de Pantin and Basilique Saint-Denis metro stations.

Preliminary surveys conducted by City on the Move have shown that the blind and partially sighted have very little information on their environment. Apart from a few isolated initiatives, there are currently no tactile geographical documents which provide blind and partially sighted people with general references on their region and city. The loss of information due to their disability is very significant.
The “Networks – stations – sites” tactile aids project includes different components designed to assist with planning and travel for improved access to tourist sites.
It fulfils a strong demand among blind and partially sighted people for information sources appropriate to their disability, and offers touch-based accessibility to the same information available to general users.
The prototype will be in relief and in colour, and will also be fitted with a speaking device in French and English.
Presentation of prototypes in June 2004.

HOMERE

HOMERE (haptic environment exploration and recognition system operating on a virtual model) helps people picture complex places by touch and by sound, so that they can simulate itineraries in advance.

This demonstration model was built by IVM with Ondim, in partnership with the AEC, and presented at the Cité des Sciences et de l’Industrie in May 2002, as part of the Braillenet and technologies colloquium. Development on the prototype could not continue due to lack of additional funding (research and industry).
It runs on a standard PC platform, using haptic (touch and motion) and robotics technologies developed by the AEC; it uses the new virtual reality technologies to provide blind people with a multisensory system for planning and simulating travel in urban areas.
Using a virtual model of a complex space, people can build up a multisensory picture of an urban site.
Users move through a computer model of a virtual world (here, the application is demonstrated on an itinerary within the Cité des Sciences) and explore their environment by effort feedback from a mechanic arm, by a process similar to using a stick, which provides feedback through touch and its associated sounds.
As they move through the virtual model, they hear the characteristic sounds of the place where they are and identify their source.
By experiencing the itinerary in advance and memorising the virtual space, they can subsequently move more easily around the real sites.

A survey on blind access to tourism and transport websites (Paris Ile de France, Regional Tourism Committee, Pariscope, SNCF, RATP).

This analysis of the websites and the difficulties the blind and partially sighted encounter in obtaining information, was conducted by the Ergonomics Laboratory at University Paris V and passed on to the relevant bodies.

These days, urban mobility requires advance information on activities and venues, times and transport. The need for information is growing and the Web has gradually become a primary source. Blind and partially sighted people, for their part, are beginning to have the technological means to browse the Web using voice synthesis, touch screens and Braille printers.
However, the visually impaired, and particularly the blind, experience specific problems not only in physically getting about, especially in unfamiliar environments, but also in looking up travel information, notably on tourist destinations. It is increasingly common for such information to be available on the Web, but it is not generally designed for people with visual disabilities.
The survey by the Ergonomics Laboratory at University Paris V has created a better understanding of the problems in accessing websites about transport (RATP, SNCF) and tourism (Paris-Ile de France, Pariscope). It has also identified the type of information that is more specifically targeted at the blind and partially sighted, analysed how they go about looking for information and the difficulties they have in browsing and understanding how the websites are put together.
This study provides generic recommendations on website construction and specific recommendations for each of the sites studied, in order to raise awareness among Web designers.

Project leader: François Ascher, Professor at the French Institute of Town Planning, University Paris 8, Chairman of the IVM scientific and steering committee
Project manager: Anne Dupont, architect
aem.dupont@wanadoo.fr