(IJACSA) International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, Vol. 14, No. 4, 2023 414 | Page www.ijacsa.thesai.org Listening to the Voice of People with Vision Impairment Revealing Outdoor Mobility Traits for Improved Assistive Technologies Abeer Malkawi 1 , Azrina Kamaruddin 2 , Alfian Abdul Halin 3 , Novia Admodisastro 4 Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, University Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Malaysia Abstract—Extensive research developed assistive technologies (ATs) to improve mobility for people with vision impairment (PVI). However, a limited number of PVI rely on ATs for mobility. One of the factors contributing to the limited reliability and low acceptance of ATs is the developers’ failure to consider PVI mobility traits from the target group’s perspective. Many developers and researchers proposed solutions based on their knowledge and experiences, where PVI have been excluded from several studies except for limited involvement in testing phases. Accordingly, this study aims to bridge this gap by providing comprehensive information on PVIs’ behaviors, challenges, and requirements for safe and independent outdoor mobility. Therefore, a total of 15 participants with vision impairment were involved in semi-structured interviews and two observation sessions. One key finding highlights the need for AT that complements the conventional cane and overcomes its limitations, not substituting the cane. Moreover, the proposed AT should address instant mobility and future needs simultaneously. Overall, the study contributes to providing comprehensive knowledge on PVI safe and independent mobility traits, which assist AT developers to explore the potential barriers and facilitators of the adoption of ATs among PVIs and leads to develop effective and reliable ATs that meet their needs. For future work, the researchers will develop an AT that complements the conventional cane, supports instant mobility, and enhances cognitive map formation. Keywords—People with vision impairment; assistive technology; outdoor mobility; behaviors; challenges; requirements I. INTRODUCTION Outdoor mobility is one of the significant challenges for people with vision impairment (PVI), especially in an unfamiliar environment. Globally, PVI still rely on the white cane and guide dog for primary mobility [1]. The white cane gained widespread attention due to its robustness, object detection effectiveness, simplicity, low cost, lightweight, and portability. Nevertheless, the limitation of the cane is the inability to provide full safe mobility. For example, the cane lacks the capacity to detect chest or head-level obstacles [1], small obstacles and various terrain types [2]. Besides, cane techniques require a long training period to be well-understood [1]. The provision of complete safe mobility remains challenging when using a guided dog with limitations in dog cost, speed and path directions [3]. Based on the limitations of conventional mobility aids (white cane and guide dog), high-performance technologies have dominated interest from various disciplines to develop ATs to support mobility for PVI [4], [5]. Although several proposed systems reported high performance and achieved their goals, only a few ATs have been accepted and considered reliable by the end-users [6], [7]. A significant contributing factor to the low acceptance of proposed ATs is the lack of understanding of the target group‘s requirements. Several researchers [8], [9] developed ATs based on their knowledge and experience without engaging the target group in any design phase. However, this exclusion of PVI from the research has resulted in a poor understanding of the PVI needs [10] and negatively impact the acceptance and success of the proposed AT [11]. The challenges in recruiting people with disabilities are the reason for this avoidance, as [12] stated. These challenges include logistic problems, participants‘ safety, and study duration. In contrast, involving the target group in the design phases of ATs provides the developers with a comprehension of PVIs‘ preferences, lifestyles, challenges, and requirements [3], [13], [7]. This knowledge plays a vital role to develop more effective ATs. For this reason, the study aims to answer two primary research questions: 1) what are the prevailing mobility behaviors and challenges encountered by PVI? and 2) What are the ATs‘ characteristics that potentially can address these challenges and fulfill PVI ambitions? To achieve this goal, a qualitative study was conducted involving 15 participants from the PVI community. Three sessions were performed, face-to-face interviews, observation in a familiar environment, and observation in an unfamiliar environment. Participants shared their mobility practice, challenges, and narrated personal stories and ambitions for the future ATs. The study approach of involving PVI participants with three different instruments adds to the study‘s novelty, where the study provided insights into PVI‘s lived experiences that are often missing in other studies. This study manly highlights extensive illustration of mobility behaviors applied by the PVI to achieve safe outdoor mobility. Additionally, the significant challenges associated with outdoor mobility from the PVI perspective. Moreover, provides recommendations for ATs developers about the features of novel ATs that may satisfy the requirements and expectations of PVI to enhance outdoor safe mobility. The subsequent aspects of this article are organized as follows: Section II presents a literature review of studies on PVI‘s mobility traits, challenges, and features inherent in existing solutions. The methodology employed is highlighted