Abstract
Purpose :
To assess how key stakeholders, including visually impaired individuals and ophthalmic professionals, perceive potential challenges and effects on visually impaired users navigating the built environment
Methods :
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 stakeholders including 3 town planners, 4 architects, 3 visually impaired individuals, 6 ophthalmic professionals including ophthalmologists and optometrists and 4 sight loss charities. All transcripts were analysed using NVivo version 11 and random transcripts from each category were analysed by a secondary analyst, to agree on themes and sub-themes. A senior researcher adjudicated themes and subthemes.
Results :
Four main themes and twenty-three subthemes were identified (table 1). The main themes included barriers and enablers of the built environment, the impact of living with visual impairment, policy, regulation and guidance and future solutions and innovations. The issues mentioned most were isolation and loneliness (33 times), confidence (21 times), mental health (19 times), independence (13 times). This was echoed by all stakeholders with planning professionals stating, ‘it must restrict them going out psychologically which leads to a lack of interaction, makes them homebound which impacts their physical and mental health and wellbeing’. Charities stated that ‘People [feel] cut off from the rest of society stuck at home’. In addition, some of the biggest barriers and enablers to navigating the built environment were issues with pavements (58 times), street furniture (36 times), lighting (25 times), shared space (18 times) and pedestrian crossings (17 times). Visually impaired individuals felt that ‘we give so much space to cars and everyone else has to jostle on the pavement in fear of their death’. Town planners and architects echoed these concerns commenting ‘far too much space has been given over to the motor vehicle and now the space on footways in restricted’.
Conclusions :
This study showed that there are potential challenges for people with a visual impairment when navigating the built environment, many of which ophthalmic professionals, built environment professionals, charities and visually impaired people agreed on. The results also showed how big an impact having visual impairment can have on moving around towns and cities and its effect on mental and physical health.
This abstract was presented at the 2022 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in Denver, CO, May 1-4, 2022, and virtually.