Wu, Yue;
Huo, Sijia;
Mu, Jingyi;
Kang, Jian;
(2022)
Sound Perception of Blind Older Adults in Nursing Homes.
Buildings
, 12
(11)
, Article 1838. 10.3390/buildings12111838.
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Abstract
The number of blind older adults is gradually increasing with the aging of world’s population, and their needs and perception of sound are specific. This study investigated the behavioral activities of blind older adults and the dominant sound sources through on-site observation of an all-blind nursing home in China, and it used semi-structured interviews to obtain the sound perceptions of blind older adults. The findings showed that the daily behavioral activities can be categorized into basic living activity, leisure activity, social activity; and physical activity. The dominant sound sources included human, equipment, informational, and environmental sounds. This study developed a sound perception model of blind older adults in nursing homes, which takes three levels: sound requirements, acoustic environment, and sound cognition. Firstly, the blind older adults have a basic understanding of sound from the perspective of their living needs, then they feel the sound environment from the perspective of the living environment, and finally, they perceive the acoustic environment from the dimension of sound cognition in conjunction with contextual memory. This study sheds a light on the aural diversity of older adults, which is expected to support the inclusive design of nursing homes for older adults with visual impairments.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Sound Perception of Blind Older Adults in Nursing Homes |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3390/buildings12111838 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12111838 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Blind older adults; nursing homes; acoustic environment; sound perception; aural diversity; inclusive design |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > Bartlett School Env, Energy and Resources |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10159822 |
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