/ Paravengers / — AMIRVALA KOOHPAYEH

PARAVENGERS | Climbing for the

visually impaired

Student project at Hogschool van Amsterdam

Client: Hva, Greenbury

Timeline: 4 month

Tags: Interactive experience | Physical computing | Ethical awareness

project brief: Enabling the “Homo Sportivus” with visual impairement to make use of the technology in a way that increases their autonomy.

project roles:

Ideation
User research
Pithing and presentation
Digital and physical prototyping and testing

The big problem

Visually impaired athletes often lack access to modern equipment, and when available, it can be expensive. Many require a “buddy” to assist during workouts, which can lead to social isolation and abandonment of sports.

We believe technology should support disabled athletes in achieving independence rather than limiting them.

The idea

Paravengers is a 3 step solution to enable visually impaired climbers move towards autonomy:

1. A mini climbing wall for athletes to familiarize themselves with the wall before climbing.

2. An audio guide embedded into the climbing holds to help climbers reach for the closest hold.

3. A light guide integrated into the holds that incrementally gives a customized amount of help to climbers based on the amount of help they seem to need.

How it works

User tests and making of

digital aids, targeting the recreational athletes in the disabled community, should be able to guide them towards autonomy. through “research while design” we came to this conclusion that if the “help” can be adjusted or fed incrementally and accordingly, visually impaired athletes can receive this help based on their need, so they can step by step reduce or remove the help in parts or all of the process.

This light guide, works with pressure sensors. the sensors act when the athlete is standing on them, however, if the athlete is standing or holding for a longer time, the light guide become brighter, this is because “the athlete must need more help because they are not moving”.