Right mix of speech and non-speech: hybrid auditory feedback in mobility assistance of the visually impaired

Despite the growing awareness about mobility issues surrounding auditory interfaces used by visually impaired people, designers still face challenges while creating sound for auditory interfaces. This paper presents a new approach of hybrid auditory feedback, which converts frequently used speech instructions to non-speech (i.e., spearcons), based on users’ travelled frequency and sound repetition. Using a within-subject design, twelve participants (i.e., blind people) carried out a task, using a mobility assistant application in an indoor environment. As surfaced from the study results, the hybrid auditory feedback approach is more effective than non-speech and it is pleasant compared with repetitive speech-only. In addition, it can substantially improve user experience. Finally, these findings may help researchers and practitioners use hybrid auditory feedback, rather than using speech- or non-speech-only, when designing or creating accessibility/assistive products and systems.