Author(s)

Chieko Kato¹, Toshiaki Nagashima¹, Shogo Komatsu², Shogo Matsumoto¹, Hideo Shibutani³, Koichiro Aoki¹, Kensei Tsuchida¹

¹Faculty of Information Science and Arts, Toyo University, Saitama, Japan.
²Kanagawa Prefectural General Education Center, Kanagawa, Japan.
³JEAP Peacemind Inc., Tokyo, Japan.

This study made pedestrian models and layouts of Braille guidance blocks based on an interview with a goalball player and previous studies in order to determine appropriate arrangements in sports facilities. A simulation on walking efficiency was conducted under different conditions combining different situations of spectators’ moving with different layouts. There are two types of patterns of moving objects: Pattern-A, in which only visually impaired athletes are allowed to move on the floor, and Pattern-A+B, in which both visually impaired athletes and sighted spectators are allowed to move on the floor. In addition, there are two types of layouts of Braille guidance blocks: Layout-1 is a linear arrangement of them, and Layout-2 is a rounded linear arrangement of them. The results of the simulation showed that there were no significant differences of walking efficiency between Layout-1 and Layout-2 under the conditions of Pattern-A or Pattern-A+B. Furthermore, there were no significant differences of walking efficiency between Pattern-A and Pattern-A+B under Layout-1 or Layout-2. These results show the effectiveness of the linear arrangement of Braille guidance blocks in sports facilities for visually and non-visually impaired people.

Interview, Pedestrian Model, Braille Guidance Block, Walking Simulation

Kato, C. , Nagashima, T. , Komatsu, S. , Matsumoto, S. , Shibutani, H. , Aoki, K. and Tsuchida, K. (2019) Evaluation of Layouts for Braille Guidance Blocks under Different Situations in Sports Facilities. Psychology, 10, 595-607. doi: 10.4236/psych.2019.104038.