Field study: How blind people communicate while recovering from loss of orientation

The situation when the orientation is lost is mentally demanding for blind people and is mainly solved with help of passer-by people. We conducted a series of user studies (37 participants) which analyzed the feelings and behavior patterns of blind people when recovering from loss of orientation. Blind people find the help of passer-by people as unpleasant and of poor quality thus the studies focused on recovery via phone call with another blind person. We observed several interesting behavior patterns, e.g. all blind people moved during the phone call and verified obtained information until they found a common unambiguous landmark. We modeled a structure of a dialogue between the lost blind person and the helping blind person. The data collected from both studies enabled us to create a dialogue model and a general structure of communication. The results of the study provided foundation for a new type of automated assistance center for blind people which concept was designed.