BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED

ABSTRACT
Blindness is not a new phenomenon in the society. It is a condition of lacking visual
perception and always described as severe visual impairment with residual vision. The legally
blind people are those who have the visual acuity of 20/200 or (6/60). It means that a blind
person needs to stand within 20 feet (6meters) to see an object which someone with normal
visual acuity can see from200 feet (60 meters) away. The legally blind people has trouble seeing
things which other people take for granted, like road signs, traffic lights, and so forth. They are
more prone to falls and other accidents because they cannot clearly discern their surrounding
environment. The visually challenged people or the blind people are always trying their best to
be normal and comfortable in surroundings. However their life and activities are greatly
restricted by loss of eyesight. Many people with serious visual impairments can travel
independently, using a wide range of tools and techniques. They are taught how to travel safely,
confidently, and independently in the home and the community. They can find the way easily if
they are familiar with an environment or route. The most important mobility aid used by them is
a walking stick or also known as walking cane. The conventional walking stick employed by the
visually challenged peopleis actually not efficient to detect the object in front of the user. They
can only detect the object that is being hit by the walking stick. A walking stick for the visually
challenged people using the infrared distance sensor will become a great help to them because
this kind of walking stick is able to detect the object in the specific range. In this project the
distance range used is 10cm to 80 cm. When an object is detected, sound alarm from a buzzer
will alert the user about the object and the person can avoid the object safely without hitting the
object. As the distance of the object and the user is closer, the loudness of the buzzer is
increasing. The user is able avoid the obstacles better using the newly designed walking stick.

Executive Summary
Context and overview
The 2010 report Clear Insight: The Economic Impact and Cost of Vision Loss in India
prepared by Access Economics for the Centre for Eye Research India reports that over 480,000
Indians are vision impaired in both eyes and over 50,000 of these people are blind. The reports
projections indicate that blindness is set to increase by 73% over the next two decades to more
than 87,000 people (aged over 40). What is potentially more disturbing, if Indian figures mirror
US statistics, is that there has been a decline in employment rates of blind or vision-impaired
(BVI) employees during the 1990s that is much worse than the rate of decline for people with
other disabilities and for those without disabilities.
Part of the decline can be accounted for by the reduction in the demand for the low-level
manual tasks that BVI workers have traditionally undertaken. However, the decline has occurred
during a period of strong economic growth. If BVI workers are no longer competitive in the new
economies, one of the challenges may be to see how they could engage in tasks that are in
demand. Further, if new skills are required, the role of education needs examining in terms of its
contribution to the preparation of BVI students for life and employment.
Overlying issues concerned with learning and working is the role technologies play in
facilitating access to information, and to make possible the various actions required to live, learn
and work when you are blind or vision impaired.
Objectives and scope of report
The objective of the research project was to identify and analyze technologies that aid the blind
and visually impaired in educational preparation for work, and in employment. The research also
aimed at identifying strategies that either assist or aid employed blind and visually impaired
workers in developing their skills to participate at higher levels in their current employment
positions. As well, the research aimed to provide conclusions and recommendations that would
inform the development of better education mechanisms for the blind and visually impaired. In
terms of scope, the research covers general issues extracted from the literature, and specific
immediate responses to the issues by BVI people in education or employment, or those working
with BVI students. In addition to the research project, two other sections are included in the
appendices of this report. The first is a current annotation of a range of assistive technologies.

The second is an annotated bibliography of documents of interest for readers who may
wish to pursue issues in more depth. It is important to note that one group of BVI people who are
not included in the research, other than when they feature in the literature, are people who have
reached retirement age and who are no longer in the paid workforce.
Key findings
The key findings from the literature review and study are as follows: The literature
review reveals that while there have been many research projects concerning aspects of BVI,
there are few that provide useful overviews and the collection of those research reports that
address specific issues represent a less than comprehensive coverage of the issues. That is, there
are many gaps in our understanding of how BVI people learn and work and how technology
assists and might assist in that learning and working, and the nature of other factors that facilitate
or hinder BVI peoples engagement with the world. There are, however, studies reporting
important advances in assisting BVI people in learning and working.
These include the development of technologies that BVI people can understand on their
own and technologies that have the specific purpose of making BVI employees competitive with
sighted employees. In terms of learning, the picture from the literature is less clear, with studies
providing little depth or breadth in terms of what helps or hinders learning. In terms of
engagement, there appears to be a need to refocus attention on the importance of Braille. The
emergence of other assistive technologies has tended to be seen as replacing Braille, rather than
complementary to it.
The need to provide more robust programs to develop communications, social,
organizational and daily living skills in BVI students was also a key finding to emerge from the
review of literature. The findings from the interview data suggest cost and availability are issues
for both students and workers. In addition, all feel the need to fit in. This desire to fit in is
heightened for students, given that the teenage years can be difficult even for students without
BVI. Technologies that do not highlight their disability are preferred.

Findings for practice

Overall, the following findings for practice emerged:

Insufficient emphasis on learning Braille, and at an early age;

Insufficient numbers of teachers and support staff trained in Braille;
Limited use or understanding of transition programs for students and unemployed or

underemployed BVI people;

Absence of appropriate social programs for BVI students;
Little awareness of improvements designed for BVI that help sighted people, e.g.,
standardised ATM consoles and lift lights and audible signs that anticipate the arrival

of lifts; and
Emerging understanding of the need to develop technologies that are discoverable,
rather than learnable.

Recommendations
The findings emerging from the study lead to a number of recommendations, as listed below.

Need for more research into all aspects of blindness and vision impairment;
Need for more overview research and research examining the ways BVI people

interact with technologies;

Advocacy for the importance of BVI students learning Braille at an early age;
Advocacy for the training of appropriate numbers of teachers and support staff in

Braille;
Development of research into the role and value of the range of technologies in
assisting BVI students to achieve educational and work goals consistent with their

potential;
Advocacy for the development of specific work experience programs (such as those
trialled successfully in the US) and undertake research into the utility of such

programs;
Development of more accessible (cheaper and less intrusive) assistive technologies;
Development of assistive technologies sensitive to the psychological and social needs

of adolescents, i.e., technologies that allow them to lead as normal a life as possible;
Advocacy for the development of universal design where possible, to reduce costs
and to improve the regard BVI people are held in by the sighted community flowing

from the benefits universal design provides for all;

Advocacy for the development of technologies with operations that is discoverable
rather than learnable. This is a sub-set of the aim of universal design, that again
benefits all in the community;

Need for self-advocacy through the development of practical lifestyle management

skills (e.g., shopping and cooking for themselves, using public transport confidently
and independently) as well as skills in communicating effectively and confidently and

participating in a range of social activities as equal members;

Need for significant others, primarily parents and teachers, to raise expectations and
encourage

children

to

be

more

independent/self-sufficient.

This

involves

professionals working with these groups to develop understanding about what is

possible for BVI students to aim for; and

Exploration of the idea of compensatory abilities and the implications of these for
learning and employment.

Project aim
Developments in technology over the last 20 years have enhanced the possibilities for
learning and working for people with vision impairments. Computers with speech or Braille
output peripherals, or portable speech-output PDA devices, or GPS-controlled tactile
navigational maps, are some examples. However, while there is a range of technologies that are
available, there is little known about:
The kinds of technologies being used by visually-impaired people;
The effectiveness of those technologies in assisting visually-impaired people in learning
and working; or
Other factors that help or hinder BVI people in learning, working or living.