ABSTRACT
This paper presents a research effort to determine the needs of older adults with severe visual impairments (SVIs) based on a wearable system to support wayfinding and object recognition in a social environment. The research is predicated on the premise that gestures are manifestations of embodied cognition in the form of thoughts, ideas, creative discourse, and reasoning. Individuals with SVIs participated as design team members to design a prototype of a wayfinding system consisting of orientation and navigational components . The design sessions were recorded and gesture analysis was conducted, using categories of gestures identified in the literature, to capture critical incidents that reflect user requirements.
