Abstract
Around 2,200 million (2.2 billion) people have some level of visual disabilities, of which 2 million are in Mexico and 13 million in Japan. These significant communities face challenges in several aspects of their lives including risks when travelling, lack of alternative means of communication, and discrimination in their schools or workspaces. We conducted interviews and focus groups to investigate the needs and frustrations of people with visual disabilities in Mexico (State of Mexico and Mexico City) and Japan (Kyoto city) members of foundations, organizations, schools or acquaintances in the areas of mobility, safety, and everyday interactions within public spaces. According to their responses through thematic analysis we identify several opportunities for technical developments to support their needs, including for the digital devices through which they interface with the real world, and propose several technological solutions to address the problems they confront.
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Acknowledgements
We extend our thanks and gratitude to the following institutions and people.
In Mexico, the director of the Fundación Zotoluco A.C for allowing us to form focus groups with tjeir members, all the families that talked with us, and Dr. Enrique Chong Quero, Head of the Mechatronics Department at Monterrey Institute of Technology, for assisting with the talk.
Mr. Ramon Torre Lemus and Ms. Teresa Robledo for the opportunity to approach Halcones and organize a focus group, and Mr. Jonathan Juarez for his helpful contact. Various friends and colleagues, Mr. Ilya Cordova, Mr. Alan Cano, and the Mexico City Gay Chorus for their availability and participation.
In Japan, Ms. Otani for facilitating interviews with members of Porini Co., Ltd. Dr. Yoshimura and Dr. Tabata from Kyoto University of Advanced Science (KUAS) for their support with contacting participants and organizing interviews.
Professor Tabuchi, Vice Principal of the Kyoto Prefectural High School for the Blind, for organizing an interview with their instructors, Mr. Sakaida for liaising with the school, and the Admissions Center at KUAS for their support.
Ms Nakajima, Ms Nakagawa, and Ms Shindo for their invaluable help with translation and interpretation services in support of the interviews.
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del Valle, A., Liang, Z., Piumarta, I. (2023). A Bi-national Investigation of the Needs of Visually Disabled People from Mexico and Japan. In: da Silva, H.P., Cipresso, P. (eds) Computer-Human Interaction Research and Applications. CHIRA 2023. Communications in Computer and Information Science, vol 1996. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49425-3_15
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-49425-3_15
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