Can you Design to help them "See"?

Our long term project, in my studio design class, consists of designing a residence,studio space and a gallery space for an artist who has a spouse that is visually impaired. As designers is important for us to understand our clients and their necessities in order to design a functional space in which they will be comfortable and happy. Most of us do not have a background with visually impaired individuals to help us understand this subject more in depth so our entire class participated in a temporary-impairment experience to give us a "sense of what diminished vision capacity is like for potential clients." We participated in a set of tasks while wearing vision-obscuring glasses, this completely opened my mind and helped me understand that to be a successful designer thinking of the majority is not enough sometimes, we have to take that extra step to go beyond and above.

It is extremely hard to read small font,
and pictures, everything is blurry
with a 20/60 vision.

Looking through the plastics bag was
challenging, yet our eyes do distinguished
contrast between materials.

Our first task was to look through a plastic bag, folded in half, and read a newspaper. We were all surprised to realize that everything was blurry and the newspaper was impossible to read for some of us, yet some others were able to ,barely, read the title font only! Our eyes captured blurry expressions of peoples' faces.It was easier to see light,we were all attracted to well lit places which served as a guide to experience the place. It was also really hard to recognize forms/shapes/people from afar; it was hard to see their faces. This first task made us realize the importance of light for visually impaired people. Now I understand why entrance/exit signage is illuminated, as well as why task lightning is mounted under kitchen cabinetry. Our second task consisted of looking through a vision simulator.


The vision simulator completely broke my heart, I had never stop to think what individuals with impaired vision see, or how  they experience the world.  One common vision impairment is central field loss; as it

Central Field Loss

is appreciated in the picture there is a little dot that blocks vision, making
it impossible to recognize facial features and making reading hard. I can
not imagine what I would do if over time I am not able to see and recognize my loved ones, touching their faces would be a way to hold on to memories of what they used to look like, this simply breaks my heart!

Multiple Field Loss

Multiple field loss is another common vision limitation. The eyes get tired quickly since they are trying to see the "entire picture" through patches. This usually happens to diabetics, making driving hard, as well as reading.

Tunnel Vision

With tunnel vision peripheral vision is lost, forcing people to turn their heads to "read" the environment. This is the exact opposite of central field loss, yet both of these limitations are equally tiresome.

Complete Blindness

The last limitation in our visual simulator tool is complete visual loss, blindness. To me this is such a scary thought, loosing sight and never be able to see what is around me and my loved ones is excruciating. Moreover, after realizing that the design world is forgetting these minorities when designing, leads me to see how we create big issues for these individuals. With a broken heart, after looking through the simulator tool, we continued to our last task, which involved putting on glasses that had a layer of petroleum jelly on the lenses. This was so challenging and an "eye opener" as well.After putting on the glasses, I wanted to take them off right away, I kept blinking my eyes in hope that the blurry vision I was experiencing, at the moment, would go away! These were just natural reflexes asking for a clear vision.

 This task required us to walk around different floors, and spaces in the CUB. Looking through the jelly lenses felt like looking through stained/textured glass. It was hard to identify masses of people from afar, they all looked like big blobs merging together, same as the lights on the ceiling. They all merged into a big blob of light. One thing that really surprised me is that the shade of green zoning the elevators was really hard to see from afar. I was able to see the change in color until I was maybe three to four feet away from the elevators, the wall sconces surrounding the doors helped as well, yet this specific shade of green diffused the light in a way that made it hard to see the color. Riding the elevator was also challenging. The numbers on the elevator were hard to find since they were made from the same material in the elevator, yes they had braille lettering, but it was hard to find them.The buttons lit up after they are pressed, yet it would be a better  idea to have all the buttons lit up at all times, and then when pressed they can change to a different color letting the individual know they have been pressed already. This would also make them easier to find. Having audio announcing the floor numbers is very helpful as well since it does not force people to step out of the elevator to find the label of the floor on the outside. We were all able to identify different materials by contrast, yet when two of my classmates were coming down the stairs the last step confused them and almost made them trip.

Stair steps were either a different color from the flooring, or same color yet with paint/textured strips on the edges to let people know that is the end of the step. This feature is very helpful, yet at the end of the staircase, on terrazzo flooring, there were brass/metal separating strips that made it look like there was one more step, making people trip. One more task was to find ATM machines and find out if the design was "visually impaired friendly", and even though they had many helpful features they are poorly designed. The card slot blinks, making it easy to find, yet reading the numbers and the screen is really hard. We came

Trying to read the numbers on an ATM machine is hard.

across an ATM which had an audio option, yet the font was hard to read, and even though it was on braille as well, it was hard to find, and if people  opted for this option, they had to plug in their own earphones. Why not provide the ATM with an integrated speaker for those who might not carry their earphones with them at all times, or simply don't have them? These are great ideas with wonderful intentions, but sometimes good intentions are not enough to design something that works and that is functional.

I am truly amazed by this experiment. I had never realized the importance of light for human beings and how it can work as a way-finding element. It is easy for designers, who have never experienced what their target audience goes through, to get lost in a sea of good intentions forgetting that a successful design should be functional! I hope this experience helps me design in a smarter to provide a safe space for those who are visually impaired!