A Technology System to Help People With Intellectual Disability and Blindness Find Room Destinations During Indoor Traveling: Case Series Study
A barcode-plus-smartphone navigation system can enable adults with severe to profound ID and blindness to complete almost every indoor travel trial correctly.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Seven adults with severe to profound intellectual disability and blindness tried to walk to different rooms in a building.
Each person got a smartphone with a barcode scanner app.
They scanned barcodes on door frames. The phone spoke the room name and gave step-by-step directions.
The team used a multiple-baseline design. They counted how many trips each adult completed correctly.
What they found
At first, no one could find the right room.
After training, every adult made 6 to 7 correct trips out of 7 tries each session.
The barcode system worked for all seven participants.
How this fits with other research
This study extends Miller et al. (2020). Miller used VR headsets to teach autistic preschoolers to walk through an airport. Both projects use tech to teach travel skills, but the new study shows barcodes work for adults with ID and blindness.
Austin et al. (2015) used barcode switches to let Alzheimer’s patients choose music. The new study uses the same barcode tech for walking instead of leisure.
Voss et al. (2019) gave kids with visual impairments toys that made sounds. The toys helped kids stay busy but hurt cooperative play. The barcode system shows stronger gains because it teaches one clear skill: walking to the right room.
Why it matters
If you serve adults with severe ID and blindness, this barcode app can give them real freedom to move around your building. You only need printed barcodes, a phone, and a few training sessions.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
People with severe or profound intellectual disability and visual impairment tend to have serious problems in orientation and mobility and need assistance for their indoor traveling. The use of technology solutions may be critically important to help them curb those problems and achieve a level of independence. This study aimed to assess a new technology system to help people with severe to profound intellectual disability and blindness find room destinations during indoor traveling. A total of 7 adults were included in the study. The technology system entailed a barcode reader, a series of barcodes marking the room entrances, a smartphone, and a special app that controlled the presentation of different messages (instructions) for the participants. The messages varied depending on whether the participants were (1) in an area between room entrances, (2) in correspondence with a room entrance to bypass, or (3) in correspondence with a room entrance representing the destination to enter. The intervention with the technology system was implemented according to a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants. Sessions included 7 traveling trials, in each of which the participants were to reach and enter a specific room (1 of the 7 or 9 available) to deliver an object they had carried (transported) during their traveling. The participants’ mean frequency of traveling trials completed correctly was between zero and 2 per session during the baseline (without the system). Their mean frequency increased to between about 6 and nearly 7 per session during the intervention (with the system). The findings suggest that the new technology system might be a useful support tool for people with severe to profound intellectual disability and blindness.
JMIR Rehabilitation and Assistive Technologies, 2024 · doi:10.2196/65680