A Confidence-Based Approach for the Assessment of Accessibility of Pedestrian Network for Manual Wheelchair Users

An obvious way to assist people with disabilities in their efforts to move around in urban areas is to offer information regarding accessible path segments that take into account their specific needs. Providing safe navigation in urban areas for people with disabilities can substantially enhance their opportunities for full social participation and the exercise of their basic rights. In order to offer these people information on accessible paths, we need to assess the accessibility of pedestrian networks. Accessibility is the result of interactions between the individual and the environment. These interactions need to be more carefully considered when we evaluate accessibility for persons with disabilities. This paper proposes a new approach for assessing accessibility, based on user confidence while moving around in urban space. For validation purposes, the proposed approach is applied in the Saint-Roch area of Quebec City using confidence information from 127 manual wheelchair users. The results are presented and discussed and further research perspectives are proposed.