Navigation Systems Boost Auto Safety!

I wish to register my conviction about the potential significance and utility of global positioning systems (GPS) and auto navigation systems to facilitate driving by people with modest vision loss. Millions of people across North America experience vision loss as they grow older. In many instances, this vision loss cannot be resolved by conventional surgical or medical treatments. This often has a significant impact on important activities of daily living, including reading, writing, banking, grooming, food preparation, cooking, self-care, walking, social engagement, and driving. Device assisted rehabilitation often restores some measure of lost function, which translates into improved quality of life. Many people with modest vision loss are able to continue driving while using bioptic telescopes. These miniature telescopes are embedded or attached to the upper portion of a conventional spectacle lens for the better seeing eye so that they are above the normal line of sight (and out of the attention field of the driver unless in use – similar to the visual position of the rear-view mirror under normal driving conditions). To engage the telescope optics, the wearer lowers her/his chin and makes observations through the telescope. The telescope enhances distance visual acuity, and is used for quick scanning of traffic signs and signals. These "bioptic drivers" use their natural eyesight about 95% of the time, supplemented by brief and intermittent intervals (bearing in mind the rearview mirror analogy) where the telescope is used to enhance visualizations requiring more acute vision (such as road signs and distant objects of interest). Learning to use a bioptic telescope system for driving requires significant behind-the-wheel training and practice. GPS developers and designers are encouraged to consider the utility of bioptic telescope systems for drivers with low vision. A good amount of telescope time is consumed in an effort to obtain information visually that could be announced using speech output. In addition to current spoken wayfinding protocols, an option could be provided wherein street names and points of interest could be announced to assist low visioned drivers as needed (to replace at least some of the current visual searching that is required when driving). Interviewing and studying bioptic drivers would ensure that any such features would be properly accessible and enabling. A relatively small technical challenge with a potentially significant payoff for this large population of North Americans with modest vision loss!