Description of Letters to the Editor: A Discussion about BlindAid Virtual Orientation and Mobility and Blindfolding Those with Low Vision
I am writing to comment on an article from the January-February 2015 issue of the Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness (JVIB), “Virtual Environments for People Who Are Visually Impaired Integrated into an Orientation and Mobility Program,” by Orly Lahav, David W. Schloerb, and Mandayam A. Srinivasan. The authors of this article described their computer program called BlindAid as “a virtual system developed for orientation and mobility (O&M) training of people who are blind or have low vision” (p. 5), but the study described in JVIB tested whether BlindAid allowed “totally blind individuals or blindfolded people with low vision to explore unknown spaces in advance” (p. 5). My concern is that the BlindAid system is designed for people with low vision wearing a blindfold.