Experimentation of a low cost public transport system for people with visual disabilities

According to World Health Organization (WHO), currently in the World there are around 39 million visually impaired persons. These persons have to perform exactly the same daily activities as able-bodied people. These activities can be very difficult or dangerous for visually impaired persons (e.g. using public transport, crossing streets, walking alone, etc.). Public transit is the key to independence for many sightless persons but it still remains a challenging problem despite recent progresses in assistive technology. In this work we present and evaluate a smartphone-based system to improve mobility and transportation access for visually disabled people. A pilot experimentation, carried on with five visually impaired volunteers persons has been carried on end it is here presented in order to evaluate the real feasibility of the proposed approach.