Blindness and Visual Impairment
Most of my research and associated interests relate in some way to nonvisual or multimodal spatial abilities and multimodal information access technologies (MIAT). The content described in this section, and associated review papers, deal with my theoretical perspective and views on technology development related to blind and visually impaired (BVI) people. I see my most significant contributions to the fields of blind spatial cognition and multimodal technology design as reconceptualizing the traditional visuocentric research focus on the presence or absence of vision and its role on experience to a more visually agnostic view that considers what it is about visual information that is conducive to supporting spatial learning and navigation and then providing this information using nonvisual (or enhanced visual) interfaces. From this perspective, the majority of challenges, differences, and problems cited in the literature regarding BVI spatial abilities are due to insufficient information access from nonvisual sensing or inadequate spatial problem solving abilities, rather than vision loss per se. From the standpoint of spatial cognition, blindness is far more about effective encoding, learning, and representation of these nonvisual sources of information than about the type or nature of visual impairment, as is the traditional view. Thus, a better understanding of how BVI people perform spatial behaviors using different senses will not only lead to better theories of blindness and multimodal information processing, but also to the development of more useful, intuitive, and broadly impactful multimodal information access technologies.
Relevant Citations:
1. Giudice, N.A., & Legge, G.E. (2008). Blind Navigation and the Role of Technology. In A. Helal, M. Mokhtari, & B. Abdulrazak (Eds.), Engineering Handbook of Smart Technology for Aging, Disability, and Independence (pp. 479-500): John Wiley & Sons.
2. Long, R.G.*, & Giudice, N.A.* (2010). Orientation for orientation and mobility. In B.B. Blasch, W.R. Wiener, & R.W. Welsh (Eds.), Foundations of Orientation and Mobility, 3rd Ed., pp. 45-62. New York: American Foundation for the Blind. (* equal contribution)
3. Giudice, N. A. (in press). Navigating without Vision: Principles of Blind Spatial Cognition. In D. R. Montello (Ed.), Handbook of behavioral and cognitive geography: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Complete List of Published Work:
E-pubs at: https://umaine.edu/vemi/publications/
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=jD95I7EAAAAJ