Towards a Multidisciplinary Approach for Designing Multimodal Sensory Communication Devices for Aeronautics
Résumé
Deaf pilots in France are currently allowed to fly planes with the help of a second pilot handling voice and radio communication. Yet, they are not allowed to pilot independently. Fans4All is an association that aims at making aeronautics more accessible to pilots who are hearing or speaking impaired (HSI). In this paper we present our experience as a multidisciplinary design team (including two HSI pi-lots) working towards this goal. We present the current and past steps to develop a Multimodal Sensory Communication Device (MSCD) composed of a touchscreen tablet and a haptic jacket, as well as the visual vocabulary to define messages between HSI pilots and air traffic controllers. Moreover, we present our approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods for evaluation. We hope that our work will help making aeronautics more accessible to people with impairments.