A Proxy Stakeholder Approach to Requirements Engineering for Inclusive Navigation

2026-02-02

AI Summary

Existing navigation technologies commonly overlook the diverse needs of individuals with cognitive impairments, significantly hindering their ability to travel independently. This study reconceptualizes wayfinding as a socially distributed activity and introduces, for the first time in software engineering, the notion of “proxy stakeholders”—individuals who support cognitively impaired users in daily navigation. Through an international survey and a three-phase in-depth interview study, the research investigates the strategies these proxy stakeholders employ. Grounded in empirical findings, the work proposes core design principles for navigation systems centered on customizability, support for routine routes, and multi-user collaboration. These principles advance more inclusive, context-sensitive requirements elicitation methods and establish a collaborative navigation design paradigm, offering practical guidance for developing technologies that genuinely meet the needs of people with cognitive impairments.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Cognitive Modeling & Cognitive Systems: Social Cognition And Interaction
• Humans and AI: AI for Accessibility

Application Category

• User Modeling, Personalization and Recommendation: User privacy protection in personalized systems
• Responsible Web: Human-perceived consequences of algorithmic deployment on the web
• Economics, Online Markets and Human Computation: Incentives in network design for Web infrastructures and ecosystems

Abstract

Wayfinding, or the ability to navigate one's surroundings, is crucial for independent living and requires a complex combination of cognitive abilities, environmental awareness, and technology to manage this successfully. Individuals with cognitive impairment (IwCI) often face significant challenges in learning and navigating their environment. Despite its importance, mainstream navigation technologies are rarely designed with their diverse needs in mind. This study reframes the search for places as a socially distributed task and emphasizes the role of proxy stakeholders, who act on behalf or in coordination with IwCI during navigation. Using a qualitatively led mixed-methods approach, which includes an international survey and a three-stage interview study, we examine the real-world strategies that proxy stakeholders employ to support daily navigation. The findings are synthesized into a set of empirically grounded design recommendations that emphasize customisability, collaborative use, and support for routine-based navigation. Our findings highlight key challenges and adaptive practices, which are synthesized into design recommendations that prioritize customisability, routine-based navigation, and multi-user coordination. By introducing the proxy stakeholder concept into the software engineering literature, we propose a more inclusive approach to requirements elicitation and offer practical guidance for designing navigation technologies that better reflect the complex realities of cognitive support.

Problem

• inclusive navigation
• cognitive impairment
• proxy stakeholders
• requirements engineering
• wayfinding

Innovation

• proxy stakeholder
• inclusive navigation
• requirements engineering
• cognitive impairment
• routine-based navigation