Virtual environment support orientation skills of newly blind

The newly blind face enormous emotional, cognitive and physical difficulties in the first stage of rehabilitation. During the traditional orientation and mobility rehabilitation program, the newly blind are trained in basic orientation and mobility skills. The virtual system BlindAid aimed to serve as a simulator for the subject to practice his or her new spatial knowledge and orientation and mobility strategies. The two main goals of this research were to examine: (1) the exploration strategies and process of the newly blind when using a virtual environment; (2) the contribution of the virtual environment exploration process to performance on orientation tasks in virtual environments and real spaces. The findings supply evidence that interaction with the BlindAid system by people who are newly blind provides the participants´ development of comprehensive cognitive maps of actual known and unknown spaces during their rehabilitation program.