Non-Visual Interfaces to Enable the Accessibility of Highly Automated Vehicles for People with Vision Impairments

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Highly Automated Vehicles (HAVs) have the potential to change transportation for individuals in the future significantly. Particularly, people with vision impairments (PVIs) can greatly benefit from HAVs, as they will gain autonomy and independence in their mobility, leading to a significant improvement in their lives. However, there are only limited efforts in academia and industry to enable PVIs to use HAVs for their independent transportation yet. Initial academic research looked into this area by conducting qualitative workshops with PVIs to understand their needs inside HAVs. These workshops found a high need for the PVIs to gain knowledge of the HAV’s surrounding traffic situation. This knowledge is commonly referred to as situation awareness, which was initially defined by Endsley in the form of a situation awareness model. Thus, this project’s main goal is enhancing situation awareness in HAVs for PVIs by developing interfaces that build on a systematic evaluation of auditory, haptic, and multi-modalities while considering individual visual acuity. These interfaces should further support PVIs in the interaction with HAVs at the driving task level. The project will also explore if such interfaces can positively affect PVIs’ trust-building and acceptance of HAVs. Based on the insights of the interfaces’ evaluations, we further seek to develop ability-based design guidelines that will provide a framework for designers and developers to create interfaces tailored to the requirements and individual abilities of PVIs. The project contributes to addressing the needs of PVIs in utilizing HAVs for personal transportation. We will achieve this through (1) interfaces that enhance situation awareness for PVIs and improve their ability to comprehend situations and interact with HAVs, (2) ability-based design guidelines, and (3) tools supporting designers, developers, and researchers in creating interfaces for PVIsin HAVs. By undertaking these efforts, we enable PVIs to effectively, efficiently, and independently utilize HAVs for their personal transportation needs.