An investigation into the comprehension of map information presented in audio

The growth in mobile and multimodal Computing is leading to the consideration of alternative modes of information presentation, particularly in situations such as driving or walking in unfamiliar locations where the eyes are needed for primary navigation. We report the results of an experiment in which map information is presented to 10 normally sighted participants using an auditory display. Several measures of performance are reported, including the time to navigate a virtual route, keystroke errors and the ability to construct a visual representation of the route travelled based on audio instructions only. The results show significant variability in levels of performance between individuals, though most participants were able to make sense of the auditory display and produce a reasonable visual representation of the virtual route i.e. participants were able to comprehend the presented audio map.