Gaming Application for Multimodal Skill Acquisition (GAMSA): Improving Navigation and Independence for Blind and Visually Impaired People

PI: Nicholas Giudice (Vemi Laboratory, UMaine)

Sector: Healthcare Technology, It, Computer Science

Partners: Iris Network

Abstract: One of the biggest challenges to educational, vocational, and social success for blind and visually impaired individuals is the inadequacy of current tools for teaching travel skills and technologies supporting independent navigation. This problem impacts the 30,000 people in Maine (and 12 million across the country) with visual impairment and contributes to the unacceptably low educational and vocational success of this demographic. This project proposes a novel solution for training of O&M skills using an innovative gamification approach called GAMSA. BVI clients will reinforce and practice O&M skills learned from physical O&M trainers by playing the GAMSA app when instructors are not physically available. The core gaming app will be developed at the VEMI Lab and evaluated by O&M professionals at the Iris Network.