Shaping accessible public spaces for visually impaired people. The BUDD-e research experience.

The paper describes both the method and the preliminary outcomes of the “Blind-assistive aUtonomous Droid Device: BUDD-e” research experience, funded by Polisocial Award 2021 of Po- litecnico di Milano, and designed to exploit a multidisciplinary approach to bridge the gap of inclusive design, making spaces and services accessible, functional, and usable by Blind and Visually Impaired (BVI) people. The research purpose is to devel- op accessible public places and indoor en- vironments where the autonomous robot BUDD-e will act as guide for the BVI peo- ple. User-centred design principles will be applied to support accessibility to – both outdoor and indoor – public places, where the robot guide BUDD-e will be a primary feature in allowing access to services.