THE ABILITY OF VISUALLY-IMPAIRED CHILDREN TO LOCATE THEMSELVES ON A TACTILE MAP

This experiment investigated self-location by 26 visually impaired chi ldren using a large layout of landmarks, through which the children wa lked each of a number of routes holding a tactile map that was aligned or rotated relative to the layout. The children pointed to their posi tion on the map as they walked along a route. On the majority of trial s, the children correctly traced the route they walked and worked out their position on the map. Although the type of route (those with uniq ue, clear landmarks versus those with nonunique, ambiguous landmarks) and the use of a strategy affected performance, the alignment of maps did not.