Understanding route choices for wheelchair navigation.

Purpose: To validate a personalized routing technique with wheelchair users, understand their route choices and acquire their feedback on the necessity of wheelchair navigation and the importance of personalized routes.

Method: A routing technique using a weighting method, called Absolute Restriction Method (ARM), was employed to compute personalized routes based on users' routing preferences. The evaluation involves five manual wheelchair users. The study protocol consists of three sessions: pre-activity, activity and post-activity sessions. The evaluation included a comparison between personalized routes and shortest feasible routes, in terms of route characteristics and users' ratings of important parameters.

Results: Subjects travelled a 14.64% longer distance along the personalized routes than the shortest feasible routes. However, all personalized routes had better path quality (slope and surface condition) than the shortest feasible routes. Four out of five subjects rated the parameters they deemed most important higher for the personalized route than for the shortest feasible route.

Conclusions: The study confirmed that the shortest route criterion is not always suitable for individuals with mobility impairments. Personalized routes that take into account individual characteristics, route preferences and environmental characteristics are a promising solution to lessen the difficulties that manual wheelchair users face when navigating unfamiliar environments.

Implications For Rehabilitation: Wheelchair users indicate the importance of personalized routes for individuals with mobility impairments. In regard to evaluation results, although subjects travelled 14.64% more distances in average along the personalized routes than the shortest feasible routes, they rated the personalized routes better path quality and less effort to travel.