The Design of Assistive Location-based Technologies for People with Ambulatory Disabilities:

A Formative Study Physical Disability and Assistive Technologies

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Introduction

People with ambulatory disability face numerous accessibility barriers in the built

environment. For instance, some of the accessibility barriers that people with ambulatory

disabilities might face in built environment include curbs and steps which might block an

individual with ambulatory disability from using a sidewalk or entering a building (Hara, Chan

and Froehlich, 2016). Another barrier is the absence of a weight scale which accommodates

wheelchair or individuals who has ambulatory disabilities. Additionally, lack of equipment

which require people with ambulatory disability to stand is another accessibility barrier. This

indicates that there is need to have assistive location-based technologies that assist people with

mobility impairment in built technologies. Therefore, this research paper has focused on

providing the existing assistive location-based technologies for people with ambulatory

disabilities as well as designing of effective assistive location-based technologies for people with

ambulatory disabilities.

Ambulatory disability

Ambulatory disability has been defined to be a disability due to an individual having a

permanent and physical disability to the level that such an individual is incapable of moving

from one place to another without the help of a wheelchair; a person missing one or both legs; is

incapable of crossing curbs due to loss of function or paralysis of the legs of that person; and/or

that person has permanently unsteady or impaired gait which makes it impractical or impossible

to walk as a mode of transportation. Around the world, there are numerous individuals with

ambulatory disability. Hence due to there disabilities they are underserved population whose

physiological circumstances present inimitable physical and social struggles that arise from the

disparity between social and personal expectations as well as the available resources in the
environment. Baynton (2013) argues that having difficulties with going shopping or walking

upstairs represents pre-clinical physiological limitations that might lead to the formation of

clinical disability. This indicates that ambulatory disability is a is an issue that can merely be

situated in the interaction between ambulatory disabled people and their environment.

Accessibility barriers

It has been evident that numerous built environments, information and transport systems

are not accessible to all individuals. For instance, it can be argued that for people with disabilities

lack of access to transportation has been one of the reasons that these individuals are barred from

accessing healthcare or dejected from seeking employment. One of the accessibility barriers that

individuals with ambulatory disabilities face is curb ramp. It should be realized that curb ramps

are defined as a solid ramp that is graded down from s sidewalk’s top surface to the surface of

the connecting street. Initially, the curb ramps are designed for pedestrian usage. Additionally,

there are placed at street intersections which permits wheelchair users to move off or onto a

sidewalk with less difficulty. As well, it should be realized that curb ramps assist people that use

cane or a walker to walk with less difficulty. Hence, numerous roads lack curb ramps which

makes it difficult for people with ambulatory disabilities to walk in such street intersections.

However, in the United States, there are laws that focus on accessibility and use of curb

ramps which set standards for confirming to a low level of compliance. For instance, the ADA

standards that were set in 2010 by the U.S. Department of Justice require curb ramps at altered or

newly constructed highways, streets, as well as street-level pedestrian walkways to offer

pedestrians with an accessible route at intersections (Karger and Rose, 2013). The ADA

standards have clearly indicated the curb ramps requirements to ensure that they have the right
width, rise and landing in an effort to ensure that people using wheelchairs are able to use those

curb ramps with less difficulties.

Another accessibility barrier that people with ambulatory disabilities face is lack of

sidewalk. It should be realized that in the modern society there is an increased number of motor

vehicles as well as the dominance of motorized movement in the highways and streets which

demands a separation of pedestrians and vehicles in an effort to improve safety. Hence,

sidewalks are built on the sides of the streets. This means that sidewalks represent the line

between the street space for motor vehicles and the building line of diverse land uses.

Specifically, in the street space the sidewalks offer a comfortable space for pedestrians. Hence,

when streets lack sidewalks or the sidewalks do not have adequate width to facilitate the

movement of wheelchair users makes it impossible for people with ambulatory disability to

utilize the transport system.

Other accessibility barriers that individuals with ambulatory disabilities might face

include bad weather, people’s attitudes, and accessible transportation. It should be realized that

attitudinal barriers are perceived to be assumptions, perceptions and behaviors which

discriminate against people with disabilities. Habitually, attitudinal barriers arise from lack of

understanding. This leads individuals to have misconceptions, judge or ignore an individual with

an ambulatory disability. Some forms of attitudinal barriers might include forming ideas about an

individual due to lack of knowledge or stereotypes; assuming that a person with mobility

impairment cannot move from one place to another; assuming that people with ambulatory

disabilities are inferior; and making individuals feel that you are offering them special favors due

to giving them accommodations.

 As well, bad weather creates accessibility barriers to individuals with ambulatory

disabilities. This is due to the fact that bad weather such as rain or snow might hinder the

movement of people with ambulatory disabilities. This is evident that people who use

wheelchairs might be unable to move in muddy roads or roads that are covered with snow.

Additionally, accessible roads and buses is another accessibility barrier that individuals with

ambulatory disabilities face. This is facilitated by the fact that there are roads that are not

effectively maintained to ensure that wheelchairs users are able to use such roads. For instance,

these roads and streets might have potholes which might make it difficult for wheelchair users.

Lack of accessible transportation like buses and air services as well might hinder people with

mobility disabilities for instance vehicles that do not have a climbing lane for wheelchairs might

make it difficult for these people to board such buses.

Assistive Location-based technologies

For people with ambulatory disability mobility issues is the most important concern.

However, due to the advancement in technology, it has led to the creation of mobility assistance

technology such as Global Positioning System (GPS) and automatic doors which have made it

easier for individuals with mobility impairment to be active and get around. Additionally, these

automatic doors come with sensors which can sense numerous things. For instance, there are

sensors that senses weight, motion, light, and sound. Specifically, automatic doors functions

when they are triggered by sensors which sense motion or weight (Doukas et al., 2011). It should

be realized that such weight sensors can be disguised as rubber floor mat which are spread in

front of the automatic door. Hence, when a person steps on the rubber mat then the sensors

triggers the automatic doors to open as well as close. Additionally, there are some automatic

doors that use motion and optic sensors which are fixed at the sides of the automatic door frames,
or above the automatic doors. These automatic doors have been useful to people with ambulatory

disabilities since it makes it easier for them to access buildings such as supermarkets and other

large buildings.

GPS is perceived to be a satellite-based radio navigation system that was created by the

U.S. Department of Defense. The GPS comprises a network of more than 24 satellites which

continuously transmits navigation information and data. It should be realized that there are other

satellite navigation systems such as Chinese Beidou, European GALILEO and Russian

GLONASS. GPS has been broadly been used all over the world as a tracking technique since it

works out exactly where an object is. Specifically, the GPS tracking system are placed on special

GPS devices, mobile phones or on vehicles as a portable or fixed unit. Hence, the GPS operates

through offering information regarding the exact location of an individuals or a motor vehicle.

Hence, GPS has been assistive to individuals with ambulatory disabilities since it assists them to

track their movement.

In looking at indoor such as buildings, there are accessibility barriers which people with

ambulatory disabilities face. For instance, accessing numerous floors of a building can be

challenging to a large number of individuals. However, there are some assistive location-based

technologies that assist people to access the interior of buildings. One of such assistive location-

based technology is the elevator. For instance, most building that have numerous floors have

elevator to assist in movement of people in and out of those floors. It should be realized that

some skyscraper buildings contain elevators that have external controls. For instance, they might

have a destination control system where individuals can register their floor calls prior to boarding

the elevator. Hence, the destination control system lets the passengers or individuals to know

which elevator carriage to wait for. In having a destination operating system, the elevator reduces
travel time since it makes fewer stops since every passenger knows which elevator to wait for.

Additionally, such type of an elevator is helpful to individuals with ambulatory disabilities since

they can be able to move to a designated elevator in advance since it increases passenger waiting

time.

Mobile guides are other assistive location-based technologies which individuals with

ambulatory disabilities use to assist in overcoming accessibility barriers in built environment. It

should be realized that mobile guides are digital rich guides such as Google maps that guide

individuals in outdoor navigation. Additionally, numerous organizations and institutions have

focused on developing their own mobile guides apps where individuals can download them and

install them in their smartphones. Hence, these mobile guides assist individuals to navigate the

outdoor of an organization. People with ambulatory disabilities have taken full advantage of

mobile guides since they are advantageous in that they assist them in navigating organizations.

Additionally, mobile guides such as Google Maps the people with ambulatory disabilities use

them to access streets and highways such as looking at whether such streets have sidewalks and

curb ramps. Additionally, these mobile guides have web versions where the people with mobility

impairment can access or view them on their computers.

Another assistive location-based technology that people with ambulatory disabilities can

use in an effort to overcome accessibility barriers is websites and online forums. This is evident

in that numerous organizations have their own websites where they provide information

regarding their services and premises. For instance, a restaurant that has their own websites

provides information in regard to their premises and the services that they provide. Hence,

people with disabilities are capable of learning the structure of the built environment and know if

they will be able to access the premises. Additionally, there are online forums that focus on
sharing content and information. Hence, people with mobility impairment are able to use those

online platforms to learn if certain built environment have ensured that their premises are

accessible to people with ambulatory disabilities.

Additionally, people with ambulatory disabilities can use online imagery which provides

an aerial imagery of numerous places one of such online imagery is the Google Street View and

ArcGIS online. Hence, the people with ambulatory disability can use online imagery to look at

the aerial imagery of locations that they want to access. For instance, the online imagery can

assist such people with disabilities to know if certain roads have sidewalks or certain builds have

stairs or steps which might hinder their movement. The Google Street View as well provides

interactive panoramas which assist in knowing and understanding the landscape of numerous

streets and buildings in the world. This assist people with disabilities to move from one place to

another through choosing the streets and buildings which have less difficult in their movement.

The future of assistive location-based technologies (ALTs)

It has been evident that there are numerous assistive-based technologies which can be

used by individuals with ambulatory disabilities to move from place to place. Nonetheless, it has

been evident that these ALTs do not cover numerous aspects that can eliminate the accessibility

barriers. For instance, the online imagery only provides interactive panorama of streets and

buildings and does not provide imagery of inside the buildings. This means that people with

ambulatory disabilities are incapable of learning if the buildings have elevator or accessible

restrooms from Google Street View. Additionally, through using online forums one can not be

able to know the fully details of the accessibility of a street or buildings.

Nonetheless, it has been evident that the future of ALTs is still bright since the

development of technology has brought navigation systems and mobile guides. For instance,
individuals can use portable and location-sensitive digital guides which can provide the people

with ambulatory disabilities with information surrounding the environment that they are in

(Krisp and Keler, 2015). for instance, Google Maps and Google Street View provides

functionalities where one can search where they are. Additionally, navigation systems have been

designed to assist individuals to find ways in unfamiliar environments.

Nonetheless, the ALTs need to be improved in an effort to ensure that they effectively

assist people with disabilities. For instance, there is need to improve the ALTs to ensure that they

inspect the accessibility of buildings and streets remotely (Moreno et al., 2014). This means that

it should focusing on ensuring that the ALTs are able to inspect the building facades, building

interiors through the use of pictures, and videos. For instance, the Google Street View needs to

be improved in that it provides video of streets and buildings.

Conclusion

It has been evident that that individuals with ambulatory disabilities face numerous

accessibility barriers in built environments. Some of the accessibility barriers include lack of

elevators, bad weather, and lack of accessible streets such as lack of curbs, and ramps.

Nonetheless, there have been assistive location-based technologies which have been in existence

that have facilitated individuals to access built environment. For instance, automatic doors with

sensors and elevators have facilitated individuals with ambulatory disabilities to access buildings

such as supermarkets and skyscraper buildings. Nonetheless, some of the assistive location-based

technologies such as GPS and mobile guides have some drawbacks. This is due to such assistive

technologies been unable to guide individuals with mobility impairment with a method of

accessing indoor built environment. This indicates that there is need to develop assistive

location-based technologies that guides mobility impaired individuals with a way to access both
indoor and outdoor of built environment. Hence, Karger and Rose (2013) indicate that

addressing the accessibility barriers faced by individuals with ambulatory disability requires a

physical and psychosocial change on the part of the community. This is due to the fact that

resources handling physical barriers are unevenly distributed via a stratifying social system.

Therefore, there is need to design assistive location-based technologies in an effort to assist

individuals with ambulatory disabilities in the built environment which can assist such

individuals to improve their involvement in community activities.

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