The study of the impact of assistive technologies to enhance and facilitate
independent navigation throughout the city in people who are blind has been
highlighted by the literature in the last decade. In this work we present some
issues concerning mobile devices for cognition of people who are blind as a
result of research studies involving the design, development, evaluation and
use of three mobile applications (mBN, AudioTransantiago, AmbientGPS) for
outdoor assistance navigation in the city to address orientation and mobility
issues. The studies involved usability and cognitive evaluation processes with
end users that raised some issues that are presented and discussed in this
paper. The users through the interaction with mobile applications to assist
blind learners in their everyday orientation and mobility tasks achieved
independence and autonomy to their navigation in real unknown context
throughout the city.