Appraise the Indispensability of the Use of a Navigation System for Visually Impaired People in a City Area (Case Study: Region 6 of Tehran)

Mass transit decreases traffic congestion and improves equality of access to transport in urban areas. However, this equality is not commonly observed for the physically disabled, of which the visually impaired, or people with vision difficulties, form part. A lack of substructure supplies for the blind in Mass transit systems means that these systems not accessible for them and also causes a threat to their safety. Despite the fact that there have been substantial improvements to develop public transportation systems for the visually impaired in recent years, including urban areas, sidewalks and public transportation station development, there are still some deficiencies, especially for the approach of the visually impaired to access transportation systems. A major part of these deficiencies is related to the transportation infrastructure and a lack of the use of modern technologies in transportation for the blind. Several technologies have been developed to facilitate the transportation of blind people in urban areas, of which the most modern and compatible techniques are navigation systems. These systems have not been introduced to and applied in Iran, and therefore the modern technologies for blind transportation navigation are evaluated and analyzed in this paper, and the essence of using this system in urban areas is presented. Finally, there is a case study of Tehran’s white cane blind educational centre, and the necessity of using this system for the visually impaired population in Tehran is studied and evaluated.