Studying Effective Factors in Blind People’s Routing Design (Case Study: Public Buildings)

Motivating the visually impaired people to socialize in order to do their own tasks is a key factor in preventing them from isolation and depression. Many efforts have been made so far to make the environmental conditions more suitable for these strata of society. However, visually impaired people, as a part of the society, are still facing lots of daily problems, such as routing in public buildings. To make an easier and faster access to different parts of public buildings (especially places in which the person has not been before), a tool or a system should be developed for proper leading of the blind. To solve this problem, it is necessary to recognize the influential factors in designing the appropriate tools for routing the visually impaired people within the public buildings. This paper employs descriptive-analytical research method with an applied purpose to study the aforesaid factors. The sample size was determined by theoretical saturation including conducting interviews with 9 people and observing the orientation of another 5 visually impaired ones using simple random sampling method. The required data was collected through interview and observation and analyzed through open and axial coding methods. The research result and the responses of the interviewed people revealed that remaining senses of the visually impaired people, the material used and the form of the building’s architecture, the educational level and learning ability of the visually impaired, type of rehabilitation tools and the local culture are the most important elements in designing products or routing systems for the visually impaired people. Besides the aforementioned factors, the results also strongly suggest taking into account the mental feedback of the visually impaired in using the product or the system. This article has been written based on the studies and researches made in Iran and obviously, applying it to other countries require conducting more accurate studies and surveys.