Designing potential solutions that addresses urban resilience and mobility in the visually impaired community in NYC. This research project was done in collaboration with Leah Brown.

Role: Ethnographic research (interviewer and focus group leader), translation and transcription, illustration, product ideation, prototyping and presentation leader

Fun Fact: I first heard of Goalball and met the team while designing the New York Women’s team jersey, the team is named The Lady Lions.

Featured in the 2016 Parsons School of Design BBA Symposium

MObility as urban resilience

The goal of this project was to find a tentative solution  to improve the mobility of the visually impaired community in New York City. The threat we identified in this context is the unfriendly design of the city when it comes to the movement of visually impaired individuals and the design of supplemental instruments which lead to a dependent lifestyle. Our journey led us to design a gps/ movement assistant wearable that uses simple tactile commands that resemble those already used by guides and other assistance tools.

TENTATIVE SOLUTION

Our final prototype included 3 buttons, one to turn on/off, one to activate voice control and one for bluetooth. All buttons are textured to be easily identified.  The design includes speakers, but is meant to be used with headphones that have a mic included.  It can be used casually for simple direction (with the assistance of a guide dog or cane) or with a voice activated guide and detailed gps that would be designed for independent movement. The band is a smart band that tightens to give directions, following the gps navigation, using the three simple commands previously outlined. Additional instructions can be activated with audio/ use of headphones.

prototyping & Testing 

After reframing the problem and focus on the lack of technology that promotes autonomy, we decided to focus on a wearable, or assistance tool that could have a unique offering: independence during movement, particularly in unknown places. To make this a reality we focused on a wrist wearable with very simple commands, and voice control. We wanted to use tactile commands, since it's what is normally used by volunteer guides, a compression band for the wrist seemed the most practical. 

After testing the prototype among ourselves, we decided to test the commands we developed with our potential users. 

Our commands: 

Right: one short compression | Left: two short compressions | Stop: one long compression

REsearch

To engage in this topic we had to go do a lot of primary and secondary research to understand all of the factors that need to be taken into consideration to approach tentative solutions. Our secondary research included existing conditions and how they affect vision, assistive tools and technology available and help centers as well as social resources. This helped us map our stakeholders and begin our primary research.

In our primary research, conducted observations in different contexts so we could understand how people with different levels of visual impairment move according to how their environments shift. We sat in on meetings at the Visions Center on 23rd, attended New York’s Goalball team practice and their meetings and were hyper-aware of Access-a-ride after hearing about them from the community they serve.

We also conducted focus groups at the Visions Center and interviews with those who volunteered to participate in our research.

VISIONS 23rd street | Senior Speak Out | 11/09

In our focus group four main issues were raised: the physical design of the city and sidewalks, traffic and how new technology has changed it, access-a-ride and it’s many many problems, and the idea of safety in familiar spaces. These insights helped us identify key issues our tentative solution had to address like: the continuously changing structure of New York City sidewalks and walkways, the need for public and private transportation methods can be hazardous, the gap in access-a-ride’s service as autonomy and mainly the feeling of fear and insecurity in navigating unknown spaces.

These themes also came up in our one on one interviews, which also helped us understand the place assistive technology takes in people’s lives and where there are opportunities to compliment existing tools. You can read some highlights of these interviews bellow:

Evelyn (VISIONS) 11/16

“I'm not a complainer I'm thankful with what I have at this point. Traffic there’s nothing you can do about it like even by car what are you going to do about it traffic is traffic there’s nothing you can do about it. And again I think I was the one who stated its not the drivers fault with traffic they are given a certain plan and they have to follow it. That’s their job.”

“Maybe that’s the way I look at things. The bus would leave you on a stop that you have to make your way home in the dark. This way is personalized and you get dropped of in front of your house.”

“Crossing the street that’s what I’m really afraid of because most of the time I’m by myself that’s what I fear crossing the street.”

Victor (VISIONS) 11/23 (translated from Spanish)

“I think I definitely had an advantage. I had the benefit of growing up with friends who did a lot of sports, so sports and exercise as a blind person gave me a sense of orientation and alertness, my other visually impaired friends struggled with education and independent movement, when I did it.”

“My right hand is always carrying my cane, so I need to have a free hand to support myself and feel my surroundings. Say I am on the train, I can’t hold on to railings or feel the poles or walls if both my hands are busy.”

“I am, however, a very furious learner with technology - that is to say I don’t think that others should be expected to rely or use a smartphone. I have an iPhone - so I use voiceover, it tells me with an electronic voice what the temperature is and where i am. It speaks to me, I do not see it. People are only learning this now, it is something I hope catches on, so that we can move independently and go on about our day without bothering other people.”

Brandohn (GOALBALL) 11/19

“Once I see construction sites then it becomes a problem, and yeah that shit is pretty obvious. You’re walking on the block and then it has a little detour and it’s like “why is there another wall in front of me? when did this get here? It was not here yesterday.”

“I use my guide dog. And I guess depending on where I go, I would prefer to travel alone, mainly because I use my guide dog and it’s easier to focus on what direction I’m going and where I actually am and if I’m walking with someone I’m focusing on making sure that I’m going in the same direction as them - like making sure they are still next to me and watching where they are going. It’s too many things at once to try and pay attention to.”

“I would say that when I use my cane instead of the dog I definitely move a lot slower than I used to, because you know, I’m making sure that people in front of me - because you know, they don’t pay attention and everyone is looking at their phones nowadays-”

Jarhon (GOALBALL) | Phone call, 11/19/2015

“I’ve been to plenty different states (NY, NJ,CA) and NY I’ve always found to be the best place for people with visual impairment to travel. One is how crowded it is in the city, the trains, a lot of trains do talk to you and are accessible to let you know where you are at and what’s going on just things like that.”

“I’m just more conscious. I know I didn’t say a lot about buses, but like I’m just more of an advocate for my visual impairment- I’ll just tell people, “can you help me find xyz, because I’m visually impaired” As opposed to when I was younger I was more like just passive about it, I would just try to search as long as I could and if I couldn’t find it, I’d just be like okay.”