A mobile app based on crowdsourcing to enhance mobility for visually impaired people

• Autor(a) principal: Costa, Catarina Vitória Pereira da
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11960/2636
• topic: Visually impaired people; Inclusive mobility; Crowdsourcing; Urban mobility; Pessoas com deficiência visual; Mobilidade inclusiva; Mobilidade urbana

The number of people with sight disabilities, including blindness, is growing over the years being expected to reach 115 million by 2050. Providing access to urban mobility has an impact on several other sectors of the society such as economic or education level growth, among others. The United Nations, expecting 80 trillion annual passenger traffic by 2030, came up with a Global Mobility report with the aim of bringing equality through sustainable mobility. Visually Impaired People (VIP) face several challenges in their mobility which reflect on how they perform tasks like reaching a desirable destination. Their perception of space, safety, and orientation are leading to the isolation of this group of people, which consequently can lead to lower economics, depression, literacy, among other problems. Having that in mind, this work proposes a mobile application that encompasses a routing algorithm that aims to return the most adequate path, considering several criteria, with the final purpose of promoting a greater level of independence and autonomy to this segment of people. The application relies on the crowdsourcing paradigm and makes use of OpenStreetMaps and OpenTripPlanner. The solution presented, based on the results obtained, reveals itself to be a feasible solution for the addressed problem, easing the VIP mobility and also improving their security feeling while walking on the streets, as they will know in advance the obstacles that the path will have and the places where they can cross the streets safely, which will allow them to have an informed choice between paths.