Project Introduction
Over the course of the next several months, we’re working to understand and develop solutions to optimize the in-cabin autonomous vehicle experience for people with visual impairments. Research is already underway.
Background
As entirely autonomous vehicles move closer to a reality, the opportunity for improved mobility and autonomy for people with disabilities is closer to being realized as well. However, more research is desperately needed before solutions that meet the specific needs of individual types of disability can be created.
While autonomous vehicles represent great potential for all in the larger disabilities community, each community within that larger group has unique needs that will require their own respective solutions. Our goals for our work this semester will be to define the current points of friction and evaluate potential corresponding solutions for individual with visual impairments for their in-vehicle ride sharing service experience. Using our findings from the current ride sharing experience, we’ll then conceptualize and evaluate the applications or modifications required for autonomous vehicles.
Research Focus
To achieve our goals, we’ve formulated a broad set of questions that will be key to answer in order for this project to be successful:
- What transportation services are currently used today by people with visual impairments? Why are these services used? Where might the friction points and successes be in their experiences?
- Where might the friction points be in the rideshare experience as it exists today for people with visual impairments?
- What external or additional information does our target user group require in order to successfully complete their trip?
- What does the interaction look like between a driver and a passenger in this context?
- How is our target user group currently using their mobile device in-vehicle during a ride sharing experience?
- How might autonomous vehicles improve the in-vehicles experience for people with visual impairments?
Methods
With our research, we plan to gain a deeper understanding of the work that is already being done in this space to inform our work directly with this community. We plan to do the following:
Subject matter expert interviews
Through discussion with researchers, practitioners, and members of the visually impaired community, we’ll broaden our own understanding of the existing issues and opportunities.
Target user group interviews
Interviews directly with passengers with visual impairments will allow us to establish a baseline and enrich our own findings with direct experiences, making it easier for us to focus on possible viable solutions.
Observation or shadowing sessions
In these sessions, observing the transportation experience directly will also help develop our baseline understanding of the problem space and establish a stronger sense of empathy for this user group.
Participatory design sessions
A particularly troublesome aspect of many products targeted at this population is the sometimes tenuous connection between the functionality and user needs and behaviors. With more buy-in from potential users, the likelihood of creating something compelling and useful is greater. More to come on what exactly what activities will be leveraged for these sessions.
Prototype evaluation sessions
Once concepts are developed, bringing them back to the hands of our target population directly will be key to validation and continued iteration.
What’s next
The review of prior work is mainly completed at this stage and we’re now focused on our primary research efforts. We’ll be sharing out initial findings from both stages of research as well as more detailed discussion of the different aspects of this study.
