The role of information and communication technologies in spatial orientation of people with visual impairment.

Bachelor thesis deals with compensational aids for spatial orientation and self-reliant motion of visually impaired persons. As result of limited visual perception these persons suffer from partially complicated self-reliant motion, which fact negatively influences their independence and subsequently even the quality of their life. The incurred barriers of persons with impaired visual perception are overcome by means of a white cane and similar traditional compensational aids; nevertheless they can be helped as well via information and communication technology, development of which affected within the last twenty years even this area. The goal of this thesis is to create a complete system of theoretical knowledge of spatial orientation and self-reliant motion problematic with participation of information and communication technologies. Partial goals are to analyse the services related to self-reliant motion, which are provided by the Navigation Centre SONS ČR and to map the improvement in the field of self-reliant motion with the participation of IT technology from the point of view of persons with visual impairment. The thesis consists of theoretical, practical and appendix parts. The theoretical part is organized into three chapters. The first of them deals with visual impairment in general, its definition, structuring of visual impairment according to itstypes, level, time and cause of origin. The end of the first chapter describes compensation of visual perception, that compensate other senses as well, especially touch and hearing. The second chapter characterises specifics of spatial orientation and self-reliant motion of persons with visual impairment, its methodology, elements of spatial orientation and self-reliant motion, the white cane technique and orientation analytic synthesis activity; the end describes education and development of self-reliant motion as well. The final chapter of the theoretical part deals with compensation aids for self-reliant motion with emphasis on the information and communication technology. The practical part is realized via quantitative investigation strategy and it is divided into two parts. The first of them is the analysis of services provided by the Navigation Centre of United Organisation of Sightless and Purblind, Czech Republic, which includes a telephone line, trip planning, online navigation and help in need. Additional technique of data acquisition is used for semi-structured dialogue with persons with visual impairment; its goal was the analysis of used compensation aids, information and communication technologies for the purpose of self-reliant motion and mapping of these aids developments from the point of view of the users. The investigative group for the dialogues consists of three sightless individuals, who for their self-reliant motion cannot rely on visual control and therefore depend on using the compensation aids. The conclusion of the investigation is that the most important aid for self-reliant motion remains traditionally the white cane, nevertheless next to it information and communicative technologies are of great importance, especially VPN transmitter, which controls informative lightning columns and thus provides various information, for example at the bus stop or in the means of public transport, etc. Increasingly greater importance belongs to mobile phones with voice output that keep being developed. Via the internet access an individual can find a transport connection or via GPS navigation they can set out into a completely unfamiliar environment. According to respondents' opinion these aids are easily available and keep being developed. Nevertheless they warn against using touchscreen phones, which can be very difficult or even impossible to manipulate for some users. According to the respondents the services of the Navigation Centre SONS ČR are not feasible due to the fees