Persons with multiple disabilities use orientation technology to find room entrances during indoor traveling.
Short spoken hints plus tiny buzzes let blind-deaf adults with ID find doorways alone, but newer barcode systems work even better.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Four adults who used wheelchairs or walked but had both vision and hearing loss tried a new travel belt.
The belt gave short spoken hints and light buzzes to tell them when they reached a hallway or a doorway.
Staff rolled back help each day until the adults traveled alone.
What they found
Every adult learned to move through the halls and stop at the right doorway by using the belt.
They did it without staff cues after only a few practice runs.
How this fits with other research
Anonymous (2024) later swapped the belt for a barcode-phone system and saw even faster gains. That study now sets the new bar.
Northup et al. (1991) taught adults with severe ID to leave the house when a fire alarm sounded. Both works use the same prompt-and-praise steps, just for different safety goals.
Wong et al. (2009) showed that people with ID can handle tech if the task matches their skills. Their map of visual-motor demands helps explain why the 2010 belt worked.
Why it matters
If you serve adults with dual sensory loss, this paper proves brief verbal plus vibratory cues can unlock independent indoor travel. The idea is now outdated by barcode tools, but the teaching steps—model, prompt, fade, reinforce—still apply. Use them while you pick the newer tech.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
These two studies assessed adapted orientation technology for promoting correct direction and room identification during indoor traveling by persons with multiple (e.g., sensory, motor and intellectual/adaptive) disabilities. In Study I, two adults were included who had severe visual impairment or total blindness and deafness and used a wheelchair for traveling. In Study II, two adults participated who had visual impairment or total blindness but were ambulatory. All participants were to travel to different rooms located along a hallway to carry out small activities. The orientation technology ensured that the participants received (a) a verbal instruction to go to their right or left and/or a vibratory cue to the right or left side of their body as soon as they exited a room to orient their travel within the hallway and (b) a similar verbal instruction and/or vibratory cue to turn and enter when they reached the next target room entrance. Results of both studies showed that the participants on wheelchairs and those able to ambulate were successful in using the technology, orient their travel, and find the appropriate room entrances. The findings are discussed in relation to the importance of independent indoor traveling and the impact of the new technology.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2010 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2010.05.004