Abstract
Subjects, 8 blind and 8 partially sighted children, were asked to walk independently in a natural setting for 1.5km. The streets covered included both wide and narrow streets, as well as intersections and shopping areas. After the walk, the children were asked to draw a map of where they had been. The children's behavior as they walked was observed and analyzed. Results were as follows: 1. Partially sighted children were more likely to walk in the middle of a sidewalk, while blind children tended to walk along the outer edge of a wide sidewalk, often meandering to avoid obstacles and other pedestrians on the road in the shopping areas. 2. Partially sighted children walked faster, and stopped walking less often, than the blind children did. 3. At intersections, the blind children often started across when the signal was red and stopped when it was green. 4. The blind children often went straight ahead when they should have turned to the right or left. 5. At crosswalks, the blind children more often stood still, and more often touched or hit other pedestrians or obstacles, while the partially sighted children crossed more smoothly. 6. The maps drawn by the blind children showed generally that they could not reproduce their path, nor remember the number of signals that they had passed. The difference found between the blind and the partially sighted children's walking in the city seemed to occur because apparently the blind children could not comprehead the obstracles and other pedestrians and had poor judgement about their immediate surroundings, while the partially sighted children showed better comprehension and judgment.
